Mr. Holland Sparknotes

Mr. Holland wasn’t excited to be a teacher and that really reflected his teaching ways at the start of the movie. Burning the beginning all he was focused on was getting in and out of the school without having to put any extra effort into the job, he was mainly focused on making his music and wasn’t worried about anything else. After his wife had told him that they were having a baby, he realized he just might be stuck working as a teacher for more that the 4 years that he originally planned. But after a while he figured out that he really wasn’t “stuck” and he really liked being a teacher. Being disappointed over and over again by his students he decided to go in a different direction with his teaching. His relationship with his students dramatically changed after that point. There were several examples of how he really connected with his students but my favorite was the scene where he finally figures out how to help Gertrude Lang, and helps Rowena figure out who she really is and who she inspires to be. The book says perception “begins when we select information on which to focus our attention. We then organize the information into an understandable pattern
inside our minds” (perceiving others, Pg. 51). The first time he perceived Gertrude he thought that she wasn’t very good and that she was messing up the band, after he spent his time helping her and finding her sound he changed how he saw her. When he was going through a tough time with his wife, he decided he was going to put in the work to help Rowena and maybe people perceived that situation to be different. In the scene when Mr. Holland yelled at Gertrude to give up playing the “flute”, and had to explain her that he meant for the night not forever is when it clicked for him that what he was doing wasn’t helping her and they needed to look at things a little different. When he realized she perceived what he said different he then felt bad for making her feel like she wasn’t good at anything. After a few days that she didn’t come back for help he figured he would say something and got her to come back for the lessons. A few seconds of trying to play the old way and not making any progress, he decided that he was going to help her see music in a different way. Mr.
Holland realized she wasn’t having any fun playing, and music is supposing to be fun, so he persuaded her to look at it a different way and not give up. In that scene, he asks her what he favorite thing was about her and she said her hair “because it reminds her dad of a sunset” (Mr. Hollands opus, 1995). He then told her to play the sunset… That is such a great example of perception because there is no way to play the sunset but it meant to play the way she feels about it; many people feel different about the way sunset makes them feel but the way it makes her feel helped her hit a note she usually couldn’t. He taught her how to finally have fun while playing and not to worry about what others think. And that’s where teaching changed for him and he learned a new way to teach and make kids want to
learn. Things were a bit different whit his relationship and perception with Rowena than it was with Gertrude. This is because there seemed to be an innocent flirtation at the start but people could look at the situation different. At that time, he was going through a rough time with his wife and his family life so he was really devoting his time into work, and his work just happen to be helping a girl that was into her professor. As soon as the first scene with Rowena happened I had told myself that there was going to be something between them, and that was my perception of the movie taking over even though nothing had happened yet. At the beginning of the movie Mrs. Holland told her husband that she was into her music teacher and that had set us up for maybe something later happening in the movie.