Themes In Dangerous Minds

Submitted By ayman_harun
Words: 2218
Pages: 9

MINUS ACTIVITY

Character, plot, settings

Themes: ideas, morals, message, symbolism, meaning, views, values, ignorance, naïve/naivety, change, learning, experiencing, rules, individualityand conformity.

Moral – right and wrong. Text is saying something is right and wrong.
Morality – Persistence is seen as something that is good. Arrogance is no sympathy; no empathy is something that’s bad.
Views – Perspective values – what is a good aspect of society should we keep/embrace. What bad aspects of society should we get rid of?

Always think about themes, you’ll never know the exam questions etc. Discovering the themes and knowing the themes well will help you fully understand.

Dangerous minds suggests that one cannot embrace their own life unless they see the chance of opportunity and realize they have the potential to do good and succeed. It demonstrates that the most powerful way for one to realize their full potential is to help and support of others.

Your text is trying to say something so is essay. Your essay is about analysing/investigation.

First scene demonstrates poverty type setting. Suggests we aren’t in the safest most happiest place. There is poverty, violence, threatening place to live and exist. The characters do not have complete happiness in their lives. The movie starts black n white. Lack of anything positive, lack of colour, happiness etc.
Shows how the school is busy, underfunded, unorganized. Perhaps the education is not the most importance thing. They have limited fund so they just try to hire anyone. The school wasn’t what Miss Johnson planned for.

“when can you start” “a person of your experience doesn’t normally apply to this school”
“emergency certification (you haven’t completed your teaching degree but let’s get that fast tracked, desperate for anyone)
This allows us to imagine the previous teachers that the kids have had. The teacher was so surprised that she had so much experience (the applicant)

THEME: persistence what she planned on doing when applying didn’t happen (wanted to be a student teacher but was asked to be an academy teacher)
He warns her constantly but she just continues to move on with the school and teaching,
She was in a abusive relationship, is now ready to move on. She didn’t give up when she was in the dark place in her life and it was hard.

“Come on you know what they’re like” Mr Griffith assumes that he knows that they aren’t just like that today.
“Who are these kids, rejects from hell” “No they’re bright kids with little or no educational skills.
This quote suggests that she is going to work hard to change them. That quote means they can’t be fixed. This quote doesn’t fit into how we see her. She thought it was impossible, but she didn’t walk away, she went back into the class.
“no they’re bright kids with little or no education skills” he agrees that they are bad but its not their fault, they can learn they can be taught how to act. They aren’t rejects from hell, it’s because everyone else has failed them, no one has given them an opportunity.
“You can’t teach them” – Miss Johnson
“You can, you just need to get their attention” – Mr Griffith
“She realizes (the teacher of this class) needs to do something else, she needs to learn how the students are, she learns rather than teaches. She isn’t just there to teach them everything she knows, she needs to learn something about them before she can teach.
“you guys don’t know shit” she even changes up her language to work more better with the students.
“if you want to pass all you have to do is try”
“Raul do you know Karate? Raul says I know enough. Not necessarily karate but he is talking about everything he has been through.
“I never got no A before – Darrell
They react with doubt when she tells them they are all getting an A right now. This indicates that they are pessimistic, they have always failed, and everyone has failed them. Why should they change