Stand and Deliver

The movie Stand and Deliver takes place in the lower class part of Las Angeles. When the movie starts you see the teacher driving down the street, and you begin to notice graffiti, closed shops, poor people, and gang members. When you finally see the school for the first time, you see that there is no order in the hallways. Students are late for class, disrespectful to teachers, and some students even rigged the fire alarm in order to get out of class early.The teacher observes all of this the first day and doesn’t react, rather he lets the students talk back and throw paper at him. The next day he comes to class with a butchers knife and an apron on and in order to get the class’s attention, he whacks a huge chunk of the apple out in front of the whole class.

This immediately gets the students attention and he begins to teach the class fractions. You notice the gang members that hang out in the back of the class.One in particular has to keep his books hidden at home and in the classroom in fear that his gang may see that he wants to learn. I like the way that the professor talks to his students one on one. He comes to them slowly and places his hands slightly in his trousers and he motivates his students with positive reinforcement. He instills the message that if you do not attend his class and do well, you will be serving burgers instead of owning the restaurant. By the end of the movie the teacher has pressed his students to learn calculus, and they all take an Ap exam.

The whole class passes the test and because of this they are accused of cheating. The professor is angry with this outcome and he confronts the men who are determining the investigation. I think that the movie will end with the students failing the exam due to cheating. I don’t think the professor will be able to influence the investigators and the movie will end with the students either having to re take the test, or fail it. I do not predict a happy Hollywood ending.