You might question if sitting in on a a racially mixed class of junior high school students (ages 13-15) from a working class neighborhood in Paris is something you would want to do. I have to admit that this did not sound all that exciting, but this movie held my interest more than I expected. The original French title "Entre les Murs" (between the walls) is more appropriate than "The Class," since 99% of the story takes place inside the a single school and most of it within the confines of a classroom, where French teacher François Marin (François Bégaudeau) holds forth. Marin has his work cut out for him, since his class is an amalgamation of a wide spectrum of temperaments, ethnicities, and abilities. The class is so diverse that I wondered if it is at all representative, or whether the students chosen for the film were not picked to accomplish the diversity effect. It surely makes for a lively classroom experience, but a reservation I have is that it tempts us to make general judgments about the status of the French educational system when in fact it is the story of one teacher, one class, in one school.
Marin's teaching style is designed to actively engage the students in their schoolwork as well as in conversations about themselves. His main assignment for the year was to get the kids to write about themselves, not so much autobiographies but what they liked and didn't like, what they felt they were good at, and what not so good, what they liked about themselves and what they were embarrassed by, and so forth. Marin seemed to have a sincere desire to know his students personally, and that is the hook that kept my interest, since I came to want to know more about these students too. But Marin's relaxed style comes with problems, since it allows his students to be more assertive than is desired and results in frequent loss of focus on the task at hand. For example, one of the students asks Marin in class if the rumor is true that he likes men. Marin handles most such questions with finesse, but he is not above getting involved in some heated debates and saying things to his students that a teacher should not say. Given the diversity in the student's abilities it is hard for Marin to know what level of difficulty to choose, but his getting into the minutiae of grammar, like the distinction between the imperfect subjunctive and the imperfect indicative, seemed quite out of place in a class where many of the students could hardly read French and had a minimal vocabulary. However, in spite of Marin's failings, his class was so fractious that I came to view him with some respect for his persistence in trying to teach these kids anything.
Near the end of the film Marin asked each student to tell about something he or she had learned in any of their classes, and the response was less than inspiring. One girl said that she had learned nothing (even though Marin was able to draw her out), one boy fumbled around with trying to state the Pythagorian Theorem, and another struggled with a fact from chemistry, and so forth. I came away feeling that not much was learned in the way of formal education, but the fact that Marin and is colleagues were able to shepherd these students through a school-year where much was discussed, arguments had, decisions made (both bad and good by both students and teachers), and students from different backgrounds bounced off each other, was maybe the most significant learning achievement.
These mostly underprivileged kids had to sense that Marin was trying to do his best for them. After the final class had been dismissed and Marin was getting ready to leave, the last girl to leave came up to him and said that she felt that she had learned nothing in any of her subjects. Marin tried to convince her otherwise, but was not very successful. I found this closing note to be quite sad, but then I thought that at least this girl thought enough of Marin to approach him with her confession.
If education is the foundation of a civilized society, then I wonder what role these students will play in such a society.
Lest one think that the class dealt with in "The Class" is a recent phenomenon, see the 1955 movie, "Blackboard Jungle."
Watching the "making of" extra on the DVD is well worth it. In many ways the actual kids are more winning as people away from the movie set than they are in the film. Seeing the whole class honored at the Cannes Film Festival was moving and I am sure was an experience these kids will always treasure.
Marin's teaching style is designed to actively engage the students in their schoolwork as well as in conversations about themselves. His main assignment for the year was to get the kids to write about themselves, not so much autobiographies but what they liked and didn't like, what they felt they were good at, and what not so good, what they liked about themselves and what they were embarrassed by, and so forth. Marin seemed to have a sincere desire to know his students personally, and that is the hook that kept my interest, since I came to want to know more about these students too. But Marin's relaxed style comes with problems, since it allows his students to be more assertive than is desired and results in frequent loss of focus on the task at hand. For example, one of the students asks Marin in class if the rumor is true that he likes men. Marin handles most such questions with finesse, but he is not above getting involved in some heated debates and saying things to his students that a teacher should not say. Given the diversity in the student's abilities it is hard for Marin to know what level of difficulty to choose, but his getting into the minutiae of grammar, like the distinction between the imperfect subjunctive and the imperfect indicative, seemed quite out of place in a class where many of the students could hardly read French and had a minimal vocabulary. However, in spite of Marin's failings, his class was so fractious that I came to view him with some respect for his persistence in trying to teach these kids anything.
Near the end of the film Marin asked each student to tell about something he or she had learned in any of their classes, and the response was less than inspiring. One girl said that she had learned nothing (even though Marin was able to draw her out), one boy fumbled around with trying to state the Pythagorian Theorem, and another struggled with a fact from chemistry, and so forth. I came away feeling that not much was learned in the way of formal education, but the fact that Marin and is colleagues were able to shepherd these students through a school-year where much was discussed, arguments had, decisions made (both bad and good by both students and teachers), and students from different backgrounds bounced off each other, was maybe the most significant learning achievement.
These mostly underprivileged kids had to sense that Marin was trying to do his best for them. After the final class had been dismissed and Marin was getting ready to leave, the last girl to leave came up to him and said that she felt that she had learned nothing in any of her subjects. Marin tried to convince her otherwise, but was not very successful. I found this closing note to be quite sad, but then I thought that at least this girl thought enough of Marin to approach him with her confession.
If education is the foundation of a civilized society, then I wonder what role these students will play in such a society.
Lest one think that the class dealt with in "The Class" is a recent phenomenon, see the 1955 movie, "Blackboard Jungle."
Watching the "making of" extra on the DVD is well worth it. In many ways the actual kids are more winning as people away from the movie set than they are in the film. Seeing the whole class honored at the Cannes Film Festival was moving and I am sure was an experience these kids will always treasure.