Lean on Me Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Movie Notes...

Description

● Opening scene has the song “Welcome to the Jungle” ○ Symbolic of the violence and cruelty of the high school, comparing it to a jungle and the students are like animals ● No teachers intervening in the fighting and bullying ● Fashion from the 90’s is very grunge like ● Administration only cares about their positions, not the students ○ “I’m not going down because these students can’t pass a test” ○ Mr. Clark says “ you treat them like animals and that’s how they’ll behave” ● The scene where Mr. Clark walks into the high school 20 years later is so sad ● Mr. Clark establishes power very early on ● It’s kind of sad how Mr. Clark cares more about a school he hasn’t taught at in 20 years than all the teachers do ● The students need to learn a sense of community because they don’t know what it’s like to feel valued and therefore, they won’t want to behave ● The kids don’t listen to anybody of authority ● “They have taken up space, they have disrupted this school…” (Mr. Clark) ● “Since all of them couldn’t graduate anyway…” (Mr. Clark) ● Mr. Clark tells the students that they can’t achieve the American Dream if they don’t acquire the basic skills they need now ● “If you fail, I don’t want you to blame the white man, I want you to blame yourselves” (Mr. Clark) ○ Could be relevant to the moral of the story ● It must be hard for the parents to hear him talking and feel like it’s your fault that your child has failed because of your current family and financial situation ● Mr. Clark is giving these kids a wake up call by expelling them ● The door so far has had 1 scene with a teacher selling drugs to a student, and 1 scene of Mr. Clark having a heart to heart with a student ● Foreshadowing that Mr. Clark and Sams are going to create a close bond, sort of like a father figure ● Mr. Clark publicly embarrassing Sams during lunch is really holding him accountable like he said he would ● Public humiliation is the most effective tactic for how to deal with these kids ● Making them learn the school song is teaching them to have a sense of unity ● Views on public humiliation have definitely changed drastically over the years ● One of the morals of the story is tough love ● He’s also holding the staff accountable for their actions in making the school the way it is, not just

the students ● Kaneesha probably thinks its weird to see someone who she loved and respected so long ago be so harsh ● Lots of students at the school, like Kaneesha, probably don’t have places to live as well ● Mr. Clark bridges the gap between a teacher/administrator and a parent-like figure ● It’s clear that Mr. Clark is not there for the paycheck ● They also keep calling each other the n word its just so weird hearing that because of how offensive it is these days! ● Mr. Clark refers to the students as drug dealers and thugs ● Mr. Clark’s told to “get used to it, it’s the way of the world” and that’s what he tells his students. He’s getting a taste of his own medicine ● “You’ll be dead in a year” (Mr. Clark) ● It pains Mr. Clark to be harsh with these students because he actually cares about them, but he knows it’s the right thing to do ● I love the scene where Mrs. Powers changes the song and Mr. Clark says that that will be the new school song ● They make the hallways seem brighter now, in the beginning of the movie, they seemed so dark ● The test scores went down from the beginning of the movie (38% to 33%) ● He’s putting the failure of the kids on the teachers ● “Because you have failed to educate them, this is the posture that many of our students will wind up in, except they will be facing down the barrel of a gun” (Mr. Clark) ● Mr. Clark is becoming a lot more lenient as the students become more well behaved ○ Character development ● “The same people you support are the ones you’re beating up” (Vice Principal) ● Mr. Clark is hyping them up about the test and really making them exciting and take an active interest in their education ● I love the scene where the whole auditorium sings “Lean On Me” ● Another moral of the story is teenagers taking responsibility for their own actions ● It’s so sad but heartwarming when Kaneesha goes to Mr. Clark as a father figure when she gets pregnant ● Her first reaction "please don't be mad at me", she doesn't want to disappoint this man who has helped her so much ● Even when he was arrested, Mr. Clark is still owning up to his actions and teaching the students to do the right thing ● It comes full circle because originally, he was the one who freed them from the horrible school

situation they were in and now they’re freeing him ● After passing the test, for the first time, the students really do feel proud of themselves...