I stumbled on a wonderful documentary called 14 up in America.
What a beautiful film. Simply amazing, yet real, kids. I was reminded of how much I had loved getting to know Arthur Agee and William Gates in Hoop Dreams and what good kids I thought they were as they grew older. I'm a teacher and every day I come into contact with about 150 students. I teach 5 classes of about 30 kids each. As I watched 14 up I realized how deep the feelings run and the basic goodness that seems to be implanted in every child regardless of race, religion or economic background. As seven year olds, every one of these kids seemed to have been started out on the right path and all had hopes of a good life and an innocent belief in our ability as adults to help them make it happen. As they age, some lose their trust in adults and question their own ability to navigate life on their own. Others display a false sense of bravado and even conceit in some cases. But none of these kids seem to have it all worked out. They simply push forward. One of my biggest problems as a teacher has been my inability to get past the "front," that kids display every day for the sake of their friends and to simply get by at school. It's hard to break through this mask in the first place and even tougher when you are trying to do your best for the class as a whole. I tend (out of laziness, I guess,) to gravitate toward kids who are more open with their feelings (I teach writing by the way,) and generally regard sullen or cool acting kids as kids who really don't want to be there and who should have taken another elective. While I've always been one to seek out and befriend a clearly troubled student, I've (sad to say,) disregarded the kid who just doesn't have that much to say. I'm very happy that Mr. Joanou knows more about how to deal with that kind of a kid than I do. I think I've learned a valuable lesson and a movie like this makes me motivated to teach. If you love kids, or you've adopted the ridiculous notion that kids today aren't as thoughtful, or don't care as much
