#memorablemomentsineducation #12:
I woke up this morning, checked my phone as usual to see if I’d received any fires via email last night, and halted for a moment because I’d gotten a message from a student with the subject line “Stand By Me.”
I’ve shown this classic film for the last few years in my senior English class, and like every film I worry and wonder right to the end whether students will get it, will like it, or will want to write a letter to the superintendent about my poor decision-making for showing it (that’s a moment to share on another day). With this particular movie, I’m concerned whether the homophobic epithets or the general raunchiness of four boys hanging out will finally lose its relevance. However, to my surprise and delight, my student found herself so inspired by the acting in a particular scene that she decided to write an unsolicited essay about it! 781 words, to be exact.
I don’t share this to brag on my amazing talents or to claim my Mr. Keating moment. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I had nothing to do with this young woman’s epiphany. Actually, I happened to show the right film at the right time, and the magic happened all on its own. Isn’t that how much of good teaching and learning occurs, though? And, it’s so great to be the beneficiary of these gifts every once in a while.
I do love this film, and there’s something transcendent about it and its impact on young people (or old people), even those who never had a “crew of boys” to hang with. At the end, the narrator Gordie writes, “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?” I get to talk about that line with my students today when we finish the film. I’m excited to hear what all my students think of it, of the need to look back on those moments when we came into our own, of the truth that some moments can never be replicated but we do get to relive and remember them. This film always seems to get my students talking. And, now, I’m even more interested in hearing what my gem of a student will have to say about the end.