Review of The Class (2007) by Gerardo A — 24 Jun 2013

One of the most valuable and relevant life lessons that my University has taught me is the purpose of education itself. Education is a dialogue between equals, in which the professor is obligated to lower himself to the intellectual level of his students, "lower" not in the sense of superiority, but of capacity and experience. This dialogue consists in sharing the pieces of truth that every single individual, students and teachers alike, have gathered in their lives. "You give me your truth. I give you my truth. Together, let's construct a more complete truth". I reiterate, such is the purpose of education.

Entre les Murs succeeds in every single aspect that The Freedom Writers (2007) sucked at: realism, seriousness, accuracy of the classroom conflicts and an even higher accuracy in portraying the students' behavior (it was shockingly realistic and with high attention to detail), the entire educational debate issue seen from the perspective of the students, the parents and the internal disciplinary committees. Multicultural diversity with unknown personal backgrounds of the students is an increasing challenge in today's education and it cannot be solved magically, like Hollywood solved it, of course, with Mrs. "Pretty-Actress-With-Inspirational-Smile-And-Clichéd-Dialogues" Hilary Swank in the lead role. Here, we have the true testimony of a person that realizes the weight of his social role as an educator (and, therefore, as a transmitter of values) and attempts to create awareness of such relevant worldwide issue through a novel and now a film.

Notice that education is a responsibility. Teaching is the most noble profession of them all, in my honest opinion; unfortunately, it is the worst paid. Nevertheless, it requires the active participation and the INTEREST of the parents and a consensus of the scholar committees. In this film, the committee had pretty dumb people that had no idea what they were talking about, apart from the fact that François crossed the line insulting his female students, which is not justifiable under any circumstance.

I just have one complaint. Fictionalizing that Esmeralda had read Plato's Republic was idiotic, and her explanation was atrocious. I deeply recommend to read The Republic and deeply criticize it. Do not buy the argument given here.

82/100.