Dangerous Minds

Dangerous Minds “The mind is a powerful tool” is a quote that is taught to scholars from all over the world. Teachers attempt to educate their students in the subject they have dedicated majority of their college experience studying, and expect them to absorb that knowledge to be further sophisticated. In John M. Smith’s 1995 film Dangerous Minds, Louanne Johnson is presented with a teaching position to an academy class at an inner-city high school. Eager to begin her teaching career and unaware of the variety of student enrolled in the class, Ms. Johnson accepts the full time position. This film presents many similar issues that the Los Angeles school district tackles to this day such as, teachers’ dedication to the success of their students and the lack of commitment from the students. Inner-city schools are not all blessed with highly motivated professors, who care about and believe in their scholars as Ms. Johnson does. The neighborhoods that the students in the film live in are filled with gang violence and drug dealers, which diminishes any motivation of success that they might of have. In Dangerous Minds, Ms. Johnson is tested with the ability to educate a group of teenagers who come from broken homes, who are involved with gangs and drugs, pregnancies, and hopelessness of a future with a high school diploma. In order to fully comprehend and attain knowledge in classroom, the teacher, as well as the student, must be physically and mentally present in the class. A teachers’ dedication to his or her job significantly impacts the students in indefinite ways. Prior to

Ms. Johnson, the academy class went through four teachers, two of which had break-downs from their attempts of educating the class. After spending the first ten minutes being ignored, disrespected, harassed, name called, and laughed at, Ms. Johnson storms out the classroom in search of answers about the resignation of the previous teacher. At this point she realizes the meaning and