127 Hours

I recently saw the movie 127 Hours, and was quite moved by the film in general. Though it had many of the same elements of Into the Wild, I thought James Franco did an excellent job portraying Aaron and Danny Boyle did a great job creating it. Like Into the Wild, the story centers around a 20-something adventurer who is seemingly bent on denying society and family and throwing caution to the wind. The movie consists of the five days that the young man, Aaron Ralston, spent trapped in a canyon in Utah. The movie follows his survival tactics coupled with intermittent flashbacks (or flash-forwards) to the "coulda, shoulda, wouldas" of his life. Containing a similar hero as Into the Wild, that of a young man trying to escape society through nature, the main difference is that this film runs the course of the five days Aaron spent trapped in the canyon. The end of the story is more uplifting than Into the Wild, and I know a lot of people already know what happens as it was a widespread story in the news. The story of this young man's will to live and the distance to which he went to save his life is incredibly inspiring, and leaves you wondering if you would be able to do the same in that situation. The movie portrayed the incredible fight of his will to live against the pain of his body. It certainly made me think about what I would do in that situation, and if I would have the courage to do what he did. The film also sends an important message to outdoor adventurers everywhere to always tell someone where you are going in case of an accident. After all you don't want to lose any limbs. 

Having gone through college where I received my bachelor's degree in English literature, I never had the motivation or inspiration to create a blog. I thought blogs were for "nerds" or people who were REALLY obsessed with writing and being creative on the "interwebs." I must admit that for a second or two over the course of my knowing of the existence of blogs, I had considered making one, but I simply was not motivated to even try. However, now that I am going to start my first experience of student teaching, I wanted to share my thoughts and reflections on that. And alas, now that I am not an English major in college anymore, my supply of fellow book-obsessed, coffee and tea drinkers has seriously dwindled. This results in me wanting to write about what books I am reading, and what I think of them...but do not worry, I will not lapse into literary analysis- just my own personal response to texts, or even movies that I have recently experienced in addition to my thoughts about education and teaching today. 

That being said, I just read an article in the New York Times about the city closing down 12 schools. One of these schools is a charter school that is failing its students. This article greatly intrigued me, as I recently saw "Waiting For Superman" and have just completed a course during which I learned a great deal about the cost/benefit of charter schools. In this lower-Manhatten school, apparently only 26% of the children passed the state reading test passed and only 33% passed the math test. This school presents a contradiction to those schools praised in "Waiting for Superman." The problem that I see with charter schools is, that we need to fix the public schools to be more like the charter schools, and not give up on public education-at least that is my own personal opinion. Not all charter schools are a success, and the ability of those schools to run as they do is only because they do not have the numbers of students to deal with, the pressures of the policy-makers, nor as many of the problems with individual students as public schools have. Sending all children to charter schools is not the answer. However, applying the same principles of higher standards for education could be the answer to saving the failing public schools that our country is facing today.