So am I the only one who..

spot on analysis Jhean. remember though, this is *hollywood's* version of what Richmond High was like. doubt that you're old enough to remember "Welcome Back Kotter" and Travolta et al. as "sweathogs"...but there was a ring of truth to the characters in that show (albeit a comedy) as well. i definitely hear what you're saying when shizzat goes "over the top" and makes you roll your eyes though. i don't think there's a show out there that you can love a lot and still hate moments/choices/directorial decisions/writing/etc.

i taught there (English/ESL/Stagecraft) during the mid 90s and left the year before he got there. too bad i never got to meet the man! we got the Net before any other high school through the ROP program. one time we had (rich white) kids from Martha's Vineyard chatting with the RHS kids... and the MV kids tried to talk gangsta with mine... who were all like "yeah... right!" there's a great skit by George Carlin how if you put an Irish kid in with a black basketball team he'll be all ghetto within a week... but if you put a black kid in with a bunch of whites you won't hear him saying "gosh this corned beef is swell."

culture! language! loving live and learning is what it's all about. if you're interested take a look at an article i wrote (a good portion of it is about RHS): http://snurl.com/netc1 and tell me what you think (best to email me at [email protected]).

right now my focus is on my own school district which is set to cut 27% from the budget next year. i'm trying to think of ways to *not cut anything* and expand on the ideas i started with teaching at Richmond 15 years ago. lots can be do to inspire kids to learn... especially with tech... just get them involved with their own education: facilitation-- validation-- motivation-- collaboration. there ya have my pedagogy. out!

There are seriously people like Kenyon out there, with the blank stare. It's very common with the kids who have a learning disability or emotional problem because they are tuning out. I guess the point was that among these kids, some were tuning out while others were more likely to act out... both extremes being coping mechanism for the education system that had marginalized them as the unteachable black basketball stars.

This stereo type is pervasive in our culture and education.

I also liked Cruz's reply. It goes to the stereotyping of the dumb jock / deadbeat gang-banger. Inadequacy is what the comfortable private school kid fears, having been groomed and polished to carry the hopes and dreams of his family, the "culture of success", the college bound "good boy" who secretly entertains fears of not being good enough. But in the inner-city, you have the opposite... the fear of being better -- good enough to break out of the cycle of urban poverty, crime, and racial stereotype -- but in so doing, being singled out and losing the protection of the undifferentiated black kid, who is nothing special and therefor not worth the special attention of cops, gangsters, etc...

That desire to "bland in" is a survival mechanism similar to the perpetual blank stare from a kid who is actually listening. Did they tie those themes together explicitly in the film? No. But if you think about it enough, it is there.

So am I the only one who thinks that the original poster is a loser? Seriously, boy, save the psychoanalysis for when you look in the mirror. It's a *beep* movie. I think you get a bit mixed up on what is reality and what is fiction.

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You ever heard of such a thing as character development? Doesn't seem so if you think a young kid like Cruz is suppose to just stay a Thug who only cares about Basketball throughout a movie that had a father figure like Coach Carter around showing him and the rest of the boys another way.

and it's not even just character development in a movie. These things happen all the time in real life with kids who are going down the wrong path. Some of them actually do change their ways when they get help like this.

Your last point is pointless considering the casting of older actors who look younger than they are is something that's been happening for decades and to be honest it's smart. It's really smart because older actors have more experience in the acting field and will do just an overall better job in general.

At least one of the "high school" players looked 30+. But that's not really anything unique to this move but just something that occurs frequently in Hollywood movies.