How was student agency depicted in the film you watched? You might describe and react to student agency in the film or compare characters in the film and whether/what kinds of agenda they possess. Feel free to also suggest topics for discussion when we meet to discuss.
I watched Moxie and read some things online about it afterwards, because I was curious to know what other people thought.
ReplyDeleteMany people spoke about the way movies like this often have a white main character with nonwhite friends. Why? Does it make the main character seem more "woke" like they're "one of the good ones"? I have mixed feelings about this movie and feel like I need to discuss it with people out loud. I feel like the intention behind it was probably good but there were definitely some problems.
One line I found very interesting was when Vivian's mom said one of the problems she had while revolting when she was younger was that her and her friends didn't focus on intersectionality enough. That was an interesting line because I feel like it didn't spark anything in Vivian, so why did they make the mom say that?? And then that moment when Claudia said Vivian could never understand the pressure she's under because Vivian was white, and Vivian didn't really say anything? At least she made space for her nonwhite friends to have a voice at the end of the movie when everyone was speaking in the courtyard. I just felt like there was a lot going on in this movie and I'm a little confused! Much to think about...
I feel like the movie Moxie did not properly execute student agency, I mean overall yes, it showed that students having a voice can make a difference. But I do not understand why movies always need to have a white savior character to stand up for everyone. The relationship between claudia and vivian was interesting as well because claudia stood up for vivian and she was kind of being a douche about it. The dynamic of the helpless women and vile men in highschool is kind of old but in a sense the movie made sense because it showed that people can be the voice for everyone and cause a mass change although it is beyond unrealistic in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteLauren Jefferson - I watched the movie Clueless, and it's a little hard to answer the question about student agency because we only get to see the characters learning in class during a few scenes. I am also a little bit confused on what "student agency" means, but I'll try my best. From the few classroom scenes that we did see, it seemed like school was "being done to" the students instead of them actively engaging and playing a role in their own education. However, towards the end, the main character, Cher, decides to better herself and take more initiative to do good in her school and her community. Even if we don't see how these changes look in a classroom setting, we see how they affect the activities she takes part in within the school.
ReplyDeleteI watched the movie Clueless and in the few in class scenes we saw, the classrooms depicted a dictatorial teacher. The teachers did not allow for much student voice and lectured while the students were bored and unengaged. For example, when Cher had to do her debate presentations she seemed to have a “just get it done” attitude and did not have a meaningful educational experience, there was only one student who seemed to really want to learn and they were portrayed as a comic relief character. Most of the students in the film are mainly motivated with popularity and stereotyped all their peers in very stereotypical ways which is something I would be interested in discussing in class.
ReplyDeleteEmjae Bernardino- I think Ferris Bueller's Day Off didn't depict student agency immensely, but I do believe there were glimpses of it. I think the whole narrative that Ferris pushes in terms of enjoying life and it's simple, little moments is quite important and people tend to forget that. I think the whole idea of enjoying those moments can tie into student agency because it gives you choices in what to learn and how it is learned. Other than that I could not see any other connections between this movie and the whole idea of student agency since this movie was set up in a way where most of the "learning" is out in the world instead of a classroom setting. A big learning experience can be found with Cameron. Towards the end, he finds, and chooses, the courage to stand up to his father.
ReplyDeleteI watched Clueless and there weren't too many scenes set in the classroom. From what we did see, it seems like the students weren't actively engaged in class, choosing to goof off or brush their hair as their teacher spoke. Even when we see our protagonist, Cher, giving her graded oral presentation, the work is very haphazard and thrown together. What is interesting though, is that there is an immense amount of agency outside of the typical school setting. Cher lives in her own little world and knows how to manipulate the system to get exactly what she wants. An example would be Cher convincing her PE teacher to give her a higher grade because she was "heartbroken" or playing matchmaker with her two teacher so they would be happier and make classes easier. Perhaps that would be a sort of agency in a school setting, but rather than applying hard work to her studies or working her way to the top, we see a student "playing the game" or using their wits to maneuver their way through.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I enjoyed the depiction of student agency in the Breakfast Club. I think the movie leaned more towards the reactionary nature of students to the negative aspects of their environment than to the expectation of students to overcome their personal and societal limitations. While the characters in the film do make changes regarding their social standing, the negative school environment is kept as such and there isn't necessarily any expectation placed upon the students to overcome it on their own. I enjoyed this because I think that the idea that students can fix all of the problems within their academic lives isn't very realistic.
ReplyDelete^Jones Boyer
DeleteIn the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off Ferris was a rebellious student. Ferris and his best friend Cam in the movie have very different student agencies. Ferris likes to live on the edge and is carefree. His best friend on the other hand is very uptight. It shows Cam speak about how strict his parents are. This could have something to do with why he acts this way. This is one of my favorite movies and I enjoy the message. It shows how much fun Ferris has compared to his friend that is always stressing out. It is giving the message that carefree students have a good time.
ReplyDelete-Natalie Agee
I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off and within the school, students had practically no agency. In the few classroom scenes, teachers were talking mindlessly at the students not even caring if they got any responses from them. It shows that any attempt at agency from the students would most likely be ignored. The only way the students take agency within the school is when they directly counter it and go against it. It seems as if student agency cannot coincide with and exist alongside school as a concept. I think it could be interesting to discuss how school is portrayed as a place that actually detracts from the learning experience where you don't learn anything of value, whereas you will learn useful things outside of school.
ReplyDeleteI choose to watch the movie Class rank. The plot is centered around two juniors in highschool, Bernard and Veronica. Bernard is a gifted, polite, educated, conscious, and sadly orphaned young boy who lives with his grandfather. His grandfather has a phd in political science and it seems as if throughout his childhood he was encouraged to take education and rules seriously. Veronica is quite impressive as well, she is the class president, plays the violin, often organizes events for the school, and volunteers often. She lives with her mother who works in the entertainment industry. The class rank is of great importance to both of them, especially Veronica, and once she realized she is number 2, she decides that something needs to be done about it. Her place in Yale as a white woman that isn't number one in her class rank demineshes her chances at receiving admission into the history program. The two have different reasons and ways of approaching their agency within the school system. Veronica convinces Bernard to run for the board of education, and becomes his campaign manager. His grandmother used to be a member, and he has been attending their meetings since he was 8 years old. Bernard is happy to campaign for the position, being that his ideas and suggestions to the board seem to always go unnoticed, despite the fact that accepting would mean having the seat for the next four years and he wouldn't be able to go away for college. For Veronica, she is looking for personal gain. The main purpose of her extracurricular activities is to get into Yale, then go to law school at Harvard. She is not heavily concerned with genuinely helping, even her volunteering is purey to make her resume dazzle. Bernard on the other hand seems to have personal connections with the school board, and he has been using his writing and presence to advocate for what he feels will make the local government better. Despite their efforts, he does not get the position. And it is revealed that Bernard has the #1 class rank. Both Veronica and Bernard realize that they were acting out of selfishness, she wanted number one, and he wanted things to benefit his daily activities and interests.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to talk about the separation of students by their academic achievements. For example, gifted and talented programs, AP classes and class rank. I think this is important to consider when thinking about how differentiations between students may limit them rather than push them to excel. I never took AP classes, honestly I thought they were overrated and expensive. I wanted to be in class with my close peers, at my school they were only offered at a different building and you had to ride the bus there and back. I wanted to excel but not that much. why do they cost money? I've always thought that was interesting and just another way to bar poor students from demanding content.
I watched Class Rank. It was about two students ranked number one and number two in their school. When the girl finds out she’s number two she thinks it’ll lower her chances to get in Yale, so she convinces a boy she vaguely knows to run on the board of education. The boy, Bernard, cares about rules and education for the sake of his grandparents – as in it is something that he has been told to value from his parents and grandparents. And as he is an orphan, he sticks close to these values. Veronica cares about education too, however her reasoning is more so because she wants to achieve her goals no matter what. This movie is completely different from last week as all the teachers are unimportant and forgettable characters. There are no socioeconomic problems that play a major role. And the students are both at the top of the school. Instead of them learning to value education, they learn to be a little laxer. They learn to reach for their goals but not at the expanse of their friendships and relationships. Although it was a cute story, it didn’t feel as dramatic as the one I watched last week because neither of the students needed to be “saved” or needed a “hero”. Instead, they grew independently, and though they had adults to guide them here and there, the focus was their own personal growth.
ReplyDeleteThe movie that I watched was Class Rank. This movie was not as hard hitting as Lean on Me which is the movie I watched last week. In Lean on Me, there was one main story and everything that happened followed along with it, but in Class Rank there were multiple storylines through the perspectives of many different characters. Also, In Lean on Me, the story was told mainly through the eyes of the principle and other adults while in Class Rank the story is told through the students and doesn't include any significant characters that work for the school. I felt that the students in Class Rank had a decent amount of agency and played a big role in the school's agenda. The students were able to organize a pep rally and they also organized a skiing trip. On the other hand, when students proposed bigger ideas such as the class ranking system the school board didn't really take them seriously.
ReplyDeleteI watched Moxie, and I was disappointed that the story was centered around Vivien. Vivien was kind of boring compared to the vitality of her peers. Vivien's agency stems from her identity as a woman. This agency is instilled and empowered by both her mother and her classmates. Moxie gives Vivien an additional sense of agency. Vivien is emboldened because her agency goes unnoticed, whereas Lucy and Claudia's affiliation with Moxie brings them negative attention in the film. The classroom teacher's agency seems to stem from his position of authority. The teacher restricts class conversations to his personal comfort zone; avoiding and dismissing sensitive the topics brought by students. The school principal behaves in a similar manner, also dismissing student concerns. The school principal made little effort to understand the Moxie movement. The principal saw Moxie as a disruption, so she began antagonizing the movement. I thought it was funny how the teacher's support for Moxie showed in the film's final moments; it depicts how sometimes teachers can be out-of-touch with youth movements without necessarily opposing those movements. Moxie depicts the school's clear shortcomings in supporting its students' activism. Moxie depicts school official's resistance to a changing society. Moxie shows how schools inhibit student agency.
ReplyDeleteI watched Moxie and the only character I found to have agency was Lucy, the main character Vivian sort of projected the feigned sense of activism that felt ingenuine. Vivian was driven to start caring for this cause so that she could seem interesting on her college applications, meanwhile her friends and peers who were actually deeply affected by the issue she claimed to back failed to ever see any real support from her. I found this movie to be frustrating at times, especially as it jutted off in a heteronormative romance sort spin... in a film that was supposed to be about feminism. I just think that this movie could've been pieced together a lot better. This may be a more realistic look at how high schooler struggle to take on these larger than life issues, but especially when it came to the dynamic of Claudia and Vivian it hurt to watch because you just wanted to see Vivian well do something.
ReplyDeleteI watched Moxie and for a movie that should have had a strong presence of agency amongst the students, I wouldn't say that there was. There was one character, Lucy, who carried the most agency of the girls in Moxie. However, the main character Vivian was not much of an influence besides when she anonymously started the Moxie movement. The movie was also slightly discouraging because you never see real recognition by the administration or male student body that Moxie's voices were truly heard. I will say that I did like how this movie was semi-realistic. A lot of the time in movies taking place in school settings they will show students taking action in ways that are just not realistic. The ways that the girls decided to unite and protest were methods I could see myself actually being able to do in high school. In class, I'd like to discuss how there were a lot of issues in addition to sexism in the movie that were demonstrated/mentioned but never really followed up on or addressed.
ReplyDeleteI watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and I found it a little hard to figure out if there were any student agencies. It definitely shows the difference in the way the two friends Ferris and Cameron learned about life and how to maneuver it. Cameron was raised in a home where possessions held more value than he did to his father. He does everything he can to try to please his father. Ferris on the other hand, practically got away with everything because he is a good liar and is somewhat treated as the baby of the family. At the beginning of the movie with the students in class, we could see that the students showed no interest in the subject their teacher was teaching them, and the teachers didn't seem to really care if they were listening or not.
ReplyDeleteI watched Ferris Buellers. The purpose of school in this movie is for the students to have some structure. The agency was with Ferris himself. He essentially ran the school. Everyone loved him and rallied behind him when they thought he was sick. The way teachers were depicted was dull and dry, and the principal was described as a man who was particular with how his school was running. One of the backstories of the movie was that the principal has wanted to catch Ferris lying for the last four years. The parent's roles in this movie were minimal. They accepted that Ferris was sick and did not question the motives too much. The schedule posted in the film was "life moves pretty quickly; if you don't look around from time to time, you'll miss it." (Ferris) It is important to have experiences outside the classroom. And to allow some grace and balance between all academics and all fun. It is crucial to be able to have both.
ReplyDeleteClaire Ozga ^
DeleteI watched Ferris Buellers day off which, in my opinion, had a more compare and contrast approach when it comes to student agency. For starters we saw how the students have a really mundane and "strict" ordinary life in school. The teachers are shown to have the agency over the students. In contrast we saw Ferris and his friends Sloane and Cameron have a free agency on their day off. This stark contrast between the extreme and the norm in terms of agency was something I related to transitioning from high school to college.
ReplyDeleteMatt Embretsen^
DeleteLydia Haynes
ReplyDeleteI watched the movie "Moxie" and have mixed emotions towards it. Overall, I think it was a good movie with a good message. However, I do think it reached and tried a little too hard to be a quirky new wave feminist movie. It wasn't ground breaking but the message was pretty consistent. As for student agency, there seemed to be a very unrealistic amount of power the students had, even when defacing school property multiple times and vandalizing the principles car there seemed to be no real consequences. Also, I disliked that the movie didn't talk much about 'touchier' topics like rape and racism, I feel like they really took the easy way out with that one.
ReplyDelete- I watched Clueless where I guess majority of the actors had a good amount of agency. The main character Cher had a lot of agency. Most of the movie it was for selfish reasons, but still agency. Throughout the whole movie she got manipulation mixed up with not settling to get her desired outcomes. She set 2 of her teachers up to make them happier so he’d be more obliged to raise her grade. Completely missing the fact that she presented terrible arguments in debate class every time. Which resulted in her low grade. She became friends with Tai for her personal gain. She wanted someone to make like her. Then proceeded to pair her up with a guy she obviously did not like, to keep the “look” Cher wanted for her. It was a bit difficult to actually see how this movie related to school because school was merely a background to the plot. But maybe this movie is a good example of the opposite of the usual high school trope. Where personal agency is not used for “good” rather selfishly for her personal gain. (Keyana Roberts)
Angela Mitchel
ReplyDeleteI watched “The Freedom Writers” in which a lot of the agency was with Erin Gruwell. Erin Gruwell, the main protagonist/teacher, used her agency to open more opportunities for her students who were being abused by the education system. Erin had her students write in personal journals about whatever they wanted and shaped them to find a passion for participating in class. Many of the students, including Eva Benitez, Jamal, Tito, Sidney, and Brandy, used their journals to express what was going on in their personal lives. Later, this passion for learning was used to create real change in their education system. The students used their agency, along with Erin Gruwell, to achieve multiple goals. The class had fundraisers and spread awareness in order to get Miep Gies to visit their school - which was highly successful. Eva used her agency to give justice to Sidney’s friend by saying “Paco killed the guy” on the witness stand. The journals ended up getting published as a collection, “The Freedom Writers Diary”, for other students in their same situation to read; They were provoking a need for change with America’s education system. The Freedom Writers Foundation was created and dedicated to recreate the success of Room 203 in classrooms across the country.