A brief critical summary about the teacher factor (Based on Mona Lisa’s Smile Movie)

Introduction

This film reflects an original image about how the life was going on in 1953, and what was the role of the woman in 1950? .The role of women in the 1950 was repressive and constrictive in many ways. Society identified high importance and many expectations on behavior at home as well as in public. Women were guessed to accomplish certain roles, such as a caring mother, a diligent homemaker, and an obedient wife. A diligent housewife had dinner on the table exactly at the moment her husband arrived from work. In fact, even if she wanted to voice an opinion, her education, or rather lack of thereof would not allow it. In Mona Lisa Smile, different stories for different women and how their lives and choices were being affected by both traditions and taboos were presented in a very sensitive movie that went back to 1953 to start the events that took almost a year. The notion of education itself became more than the traditional training of reading, writing, and arithmetic for students. The social and cultural events of the decade had an vast strike on the way in which Americans defined education. Who should be trained to teach students, how should teachers perform their jobs, and what were the goals of education. As we know, according to theories of modernization, each society would evolve inexorably from barbarism to ever greater levels of development and civilization, but it needs a savior, so the hero of this film (Katherine Watson) appeared as the changer or teacher who fought to change the antique traditional view of Wellesley society.



Commentary

This movie, "Mona Lisa Smile" is an inspirational film that explores life through feminism, marriage, and education lead by a modernist teacher at the end of a traditional era. It begins by introducing the lead character, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a liberal-minded novice instructor from California, who gets a job in the art history department at a snobbish, all-girl college, called Wellesley, in the fall of 1953. Katherine was thrilled at the prospect of educating some of the brightest young women in the country however; she comes to make difference. “Betty Warren: Katherine Watson didn't come to Wellesley to fit in. She came because she wanted to make a difference.”

What is this difference? As she appointed as a teacher at Wellesley College for women. This conservative college prides itself in conforming to the traditions of the time with a prestigious reputation for academic excellence the expectation is that the women will never really apply it, as they are expected to be married and have families instead. Watson tries to inspire her students into believing in themselves, study to become career professionals and improve their economic futures. She utilizes her art teachings as a vehicle to show young women her opinion: that the stereotype of women being born to become housewives and mothers was wrong and women could do more things in life than just the roles of wives and mothers.
In one scene of the movie, she shows her students four newspaper ads, and asks them to question what the future will think of the idea that women are born into the roles of wives and mothers.

At her first day in teaching, she realized that most of her students had memorized the text book. This was the traditional methods in teaching which depend on memorization, repetition and imitation, so she decided to change her methods in teaching art by utilize imagination, critical thinking, analyzing, transfer of knowledge, Synthesizing, and choice making .However, in the next day she brought a slide (Soutine's Carcass of Beef ) - which was outside the syllable –
in order to motivate students ‘minds in the critical and productive thinking . AS the following:
dialogue between her students and she how she employed the Class Discussion techniques : Katherine shows the class a painting of a rotting animal
Katherine Watson: "Carcass", by Soutine, 1925. Is it any good? C'mon, ladies, there's no wrong answer. There's also no textbook telling you what to think. It's not that easy, is it?
Betty Warren: Alright, no. It's not good. In fact, I wouldn't even call it art. It's grotesque.
Connie Baker: Is there a rule against art being grotesque?
Giselle Levy: I think there's something aggressive about it. And erotic.
Betty Warren: To you, everything is erotic.
Giselle Levy: Everything *is* erotic.
Susan Delacorte: Aren't there standards?
Betty Warren: Of course there are! Otherwise, a tacky velvet painting could be equated to a Rembrandt!
Connie Baker: Hey, my Uncle Ferdie has two tacky velvet paintings. He loves those clowns.
Betty Warren: There *are* standards! Technique, composition, color, even subject. So, if you're suggesting that rotted side of meat is art, much less *good* art, then what are we going to learn?
Katherine Watson: Just that. You have outlined our new syllabus, Betty, thank you. What is art? What makes it good or bad, and who decides?”.
By this way she encouraged her students to think more and to go deep in analyzing and exploring new ideas. In other scene she tried to applied her point of view by matching between past and present to prove that anyone must do what he want not what other want :
(about Vincent van Gogh)
Katherine Watson: He painted what he felt, not what he saw people didn’t
understand, to them it seemed childlike and crude. It took years for them to recognize his actual technique. To see the way his brush strokes seemed to make the night. sky move. Yet, he never sold a painting in his lifetime. This is his self-portrait. There's no camouflage, no romance. Honesty. Now, sixty years later, where is he?
Giselle Levy: Famous.
Katherine Watson: So famous, in fact, that everybody has a reproduction. There are post cards...
Connie Baker: We have the calendar.
Katherine Watson: you go. With the ability to reproduce art, it is available to the masses.
No one needs to own a van Gogh original, they can paint their own. Van Gogh in a box, ladies
! The newest form of mass-distributed art; paint by numbers.
Connie Baker: [reading from the box] "Now everyone can be van Gogh. It's so easy. Just follow
the simple instructions and in minutes, you're on your way to being an artist."
Giselle Levy: Van Gogh by numbers?
Katherine Watson: Ironic, isn't it? Look at what we have done to the man who refused to conform his ideals to popular taste . Who refused to compromise his integrity. We have put him
in a tiny box and asked you to copy him.

Anyhow, any modern movement in traditional and conservative society must face a lot of obstacles and resistances, so Katherine Watson’s views at the beginning had been rejected by her administrators and students. The following dialogue between the teachers (Katherine) and her student (Betty) show how she struggles to teach her students and she may lose patience or control in order to impose discipline and her points of view:

Katherine Watson: Since your wedding, you've missed six classes, a paper and your midterm.
Betty Warren: I was on my honeymoon and then I had to set up house. What does she expect?
Katherine Watson: Attendance.
Connie Baker: [timidly] Most of the faculty turn their heads when the married students miss a class or two.
Katherine Watson: Well then why not get married as freshman? That way you could graduate without actually ever stepping foot on campus.
Betty Warren: Don't disregard out traditions just because you're subversive.
Katherine Watson: Don't disrespect this class just because you're married.
Betty Warren: Don't disrespect me just because you're not.
Katherine Watson: Come to class, do the work, or I'll fail you.
Betty Warren: If you fail me, there will be consequences.
Katherine Watson: Are you threatening me?
Betty Warren: I'm educating you.
Katherine Watson: That's *my* job.

Another scene reflects the rejection of the society for any types of modernization or development , when school newspaper editorialist Betty labels Katherine "subversive," well, the battle between backward and forward thinking is on. Petty Betty will bring down her nemesis and Katherine will impress upon her students the value and rewards of independent thinking.
“Miss Katherine Watson, instructor in the art history department has decided to declare war on the holy sacrament of marriage. Her subversive and political teachings encourage our Wellesley girls to reject the roles they were born to fill.”

In her last, bravura performance in this capacity, she shows a series of circa-'50s advertisements, featuring women making meat loaf, cleaning house, and wearing girdles that set them "free." "What does that mean?" she asks, her forehead vein bulging with frustration .
Watson's ideas and ways of teaching were met with dislike by part of the school's directors, conservative women who believed firmly that Watson should not use her class to express her points of views or befriend students, and stick only to teaching art. Watson was warned that she could be fired if she continued acting the way she did around students.

Undaunted, Watson became stronger in her speeches about feminism and the future of women. She was a firm believer that the outlook of women in society needed to be changed if women were to achieve better futures, and that she needed to instill a spirit of change among her students.

Watson chooses to leave after the one year, but, as she was leaving the campus for the last time, her students ran after her car, to show her affection and thank her for her lessons .

Conclusion

Respect from both the students and the teacher is very important to have any kind of response. The movie showed how Miss Watson encouraged the girls to go to school and get an education. She also used her own philosophy of teaching, which turned out to be great with her students, but the school board didn't have the same look on miss Watson ideas on teaching. A teacher is not only a teacher in a subject, but a teacher in life and decision making. Miss Watson found that having an open mind about the ways of society isn't the way a lot of people think. They felt teaching should be taught strictly from books that they picked out. With this type of relationship it made it easier for miss Watson to teach and shower her potential. Miss Watson was different, but highly thought of by ones she taught. Miss Watson was a teacher that used history and current events to guide the students to realize their own potential to life. The producer did a great job giving examples of ways schools were schools were back then. It's great to have teachers that understand and are always willing to help young adults when they need someone. In the end the girls started thinking for themselves, evaluating their lives and what they really wanted from life. The students learned a lot from Miss Watson, probably more than from any other teacher they had in the past. The school administration and staff questioned her teaching methods.

Her methods in teaching, she tend to motivate students’ brain, ask question, groups work, analyzing , Case Studies , glass discussion and worksheets . She excellently applied imagination which is the ability to see the unseen before it happens. It is the ability to imagine possible discoveries before they take place .Her basic principle in teaching is to Know yourself and be yourself . She always tries to break the barriers between her students and herself, so she sometimes appears as an adviser other time as a tutor or friend and rarely to appear as discipliner or punisher .




Betty Warren: ''My teacher, Katherine Watson, lived by her own definition, and would not compromise that. Not even for Wellesley. I dedicate this, my last editorial, to an extraordinary woman who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes. By the time you read this, she'll be sailing to Europe, where I know she'll find new walls to break down and new ideas to replace them with. I've heard her called a quitter for leaving, an aimless wanderer. But not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition; beyond definition; beyond the image.''

A brief critical summation about the teacher factor (Based on Mona Lisa’s Smile Movie)

My Experience in Teaching and Learning English

Student’s life period is very important phase to form his/her future and present .Today when I speculate my childhood and my experiences in learning and teaching English , I realize how education is a great element in our life and how the teacher has the crucial role in shaping our dreams , personality , self-confidence ,self- esteem , hobbies , and what we love or hate .This is the most sublime , stately and noble duty of the teacher ,add to that his duty is to create individuals who have good morals and have good judgments, so they will use their knowledge to help others, society, and the world .
There are several fundamental stages of transition relate to my experience with learning English such as:
• At fifth Grade
This is the most important period in my life since it was the first time that I have ever met English as new course , new language and new teacher, really it was terrible , strange , dark and gloomy stage because when I went to school I didn't understand anything that the English teacher said. I just sat in my seat without doing anything, but when I went back home, I cried and told my mom that I detest school and English course. My teacher was inclement and he used to force us “students” to keep each single word by heart without the ability to spell it or grasp it’s meaning correctly. His priority in teaching the English language was to improve our reading ability and minimal attention was paid to pronunciation or gaining conversational skills in the target language. As usual I finished this stage with little advantage in learning English with little ability in spelling words or pronouncing them correctly .This stage had continued until the end of the sixth grade. Actually I do not blame only my teacher but the educational system at all in my country (Jordan) because of the poverty of the public school so most of them are still suffering from deficiency in visual teaching aids. Also, the inflexible nature of that English curriculum was very restricted for teachers.
• At Seventh Grade
This stage had a little difference from the above one especially in the teacher methods in teaching English language. He was very kind, good-hearted and good-tempered, he was always smile and I cannot remember if I saw him angry or irascible .He was not a teacher but he was just advisor and he did not stand in one place; he always moved about the room standing next to as many different students as possible to check their production. I think he was distinguished because he never used the mother language in teaching, of course that was difficult for us as beginner learner but we liked it. He used to write the difficult vocabularies on the chalkboard and ask us to repeat after him with loud voice in order to drill us to pronounce them correctly and he always wrote their definitions by English, sometimes he used the body language and acting to illustrate some difficult words .Grammar was introduced inductively and he used to write the rule on the board and asked us to find examples from textbook.
• At Tenth Grade
On the contrary of the previous stage in teacher teaching methods, my teacher always used the mother language to explain words or grammar and he translated each word in the textbook during his reading into Arabic as well as he stay sat on his chair and he rarely to stand or moved among students only when he wanted to discipline some of devilish students.
• At Twelfth Grade (TAWJEHI)
This stage was the most difficult and interesting one and any one pass this stage with excellent average , he will keep in mind each minute of , tear , fear ,hope , happiness ,sadness frustration , challenge ,determination and God faith. However, this stage is a critical period because it is bridge between school and university education .In this stage there is abundant of information such as new types of grammar, new vocabularies and you must improve your writing skill so I have struggled for salvation and my God heard my invocation .In fact that was very complicated stage since it based on your self-studding hence you have to be self-reliant and self-made.
• At bachelor Degree.
After I passed the above stages , a new stage came to reality with new environment , obstacles , ambitions , friends , teachers , procedures and new marks system .Anyway , I d’ like to swim against the current of water so I chose to study the English major. Anyhow, new hindrances came to surface for instance: some of male doctors were prejudiced with female students, as result they got the high marks; other doctors were tendentious against some of races or ideology; others were very sluggish to check the exam paper so he record students’ marks form his own inspiration .In general the high education in most of Arab counties , unfortunately is going to emit the last breath or in other words it is expiring because of using the old rotten educational system and the deep vast gaps between theory and what really is practiced .
• Practical stage
I have never questioned what I wanted to be when I grow up. From the time as a small child I knew that I wanted to teach. Even at the end of many long school days, I would come home and play with the neighborhood children. I had such a desire to help others to learn and take pleasure in doing so. From my previous experiences I know education is the field that I wish to pursue. I believe that the overall purpose of education is to prepare for the future so education is the key to a successful and fulfilling life. However, the most challenge I had faced in this stage were ‘what is the best way to discipline class? . How can I practice the suitable methods in teaching English?
At the end, I had clashed with bitter reality and I deduced this generalization ‘there is neither teaching nor learning in most of public Arab schools ‘for the following reasons:
1. The weakness of teacher’s educational level
2. The poverty of the public school?
3. The crowded class with more than 30 students.
4. The oldness of the educational policies
5. The infection of patronage ‘nepotism’ disease in the educational system.
6. Some of external effects to be nailed us as the third world ,
7. The low level of teachers’ income.
8. The fluctuation in the educational policies .
9. Preferring the quantity instead of quality.
10. The deep gaps between theory and practice.