Lean on Me

In my opinion, all movies have its own entertainment value and thus it depends on the viewer to decide whether it is entertaining or not. For me, the movie “Lean on Me” is the story that people will be able to predict the ending easily. Just like the bedtime story, ending will be perfect and the good will triumph the evil. Though the story line is nice, I still not fully understand the conversation as their slang is unique. Elements such as humor, patience, forgiveness, trust and yes, friendships are all good values implemented in this movie. I enjoy the part where the boy asking for Principal Clark forgiveness when he is being expelled from school and the way Principal Clark made him promise that he will be good.

Sincerely, watching this movie scares me a little. It makes me wonder, what if I being transferred to the school just like in the movie? Gosh, this will give me a terrible headache and how am I going to survive in that condition. So, just cross my finger and hoping that my future school will be a normal school with a tiny little bit of discipline problem so that I can enjoy my career.

In the movie, Principal Clark is the new principal in that school. His job is to create a new environment and make the school looks like a school. Besides making the school looks like a school, he also needs to make sure that the students will be able to pass the Basic Skill Test. So, he is quite bossy and tries to change the school in his own way. He makes sure the school safety by violating the fire code and thus receiving complaints from a parent. That’s quite an extreme move as he didn’t think about the consequences if there is a fire going on though his intention is clear, to protect the students from the bad guy outside of the school. Now, his bossy attitude made me relate my discipline teacher with him. My discipline teacher, who is a she, likes to order people around. For example, when you saw her in the corridor, make sure you have an excuse for every questions she is trying to bombarded you. If not, then, you will be ORDERED around, to get her books, to clean her table, to send her files and even take her bag to her seat or car. She is always the one with “rotan” in her hand to curb the discipline problem and so my school always stays out of gangster trouble.

Lessons that I have learnt from this movie will be trust and responsibility. As teacher, we should be responsible to our students. They are our client and thus teaching them, giving them the knowledge is out job. Just like Principal Clark, he has done his responsibilities – take care of the school environment, expelled the bad students, keep up the grades and become a father to all of the students. Besides that, trust is also important as “no man is an island”, we need friends to help us and support us. Just like in the story, Principal Clark has many teachers to work with him but he didn’t appreciate them and the vice principal wake him up to see the truth. This is what friends for; they make you awake and aware.

The Merry Maid and A Great Injustice

After reading through stories and discussing in the group, 5 of us decided to make our stand as “abortion is not the only way to deal with children born out of wedlock”. Now, if you, I mean the girl, accidentally win the “lottery”, do have a second thought about the baby as nowadays there are many ways to deal with that problem. Think about the issue on this track, it’s your mistake and the baby is the consequences that you have to face. Just like the KARMA. Killing it will be labeled as too cruel and unethical and for the rest of your life, you will be haunted by the guilt of killing your own flesh and blood.

In the story “A Great Injustice”, AhNya accidentally got pregnant and she is afraid of the future of her baby which will be laughed by the others as he has no father. She is trying hard to keep her secret but lastly, she told her parents about her condition. Her mother, AhSoh is an understanding woman. She believes that everyone made mistakes and needed to be given second chance. So, she offers to look after AhNya’s baby. This is the other way that you can deal with your “lottery” problem; seek out to your parents. I believe that most parents will not suggest abortion and will look after you. Why? Because you are still their children and the baby inside you, though is out of wedlock, still their grandchild.

If the parents don’t want to help out, here is the secondary choice. Just like Laskhmi in the story “The Merry Maid”, you can give up your child to adoption. “She wanted this child to have a proper home, a temporary refuge. On many occasions she had watched the Indian looking man drive his car into porch every evening as she cycled home from school. He was always cheerful and seemed like someone who wouldn’t reject a homeless child.” So, Laskhmi put her baby into others adoption as other people can give the baby better education and place to stay. Though it maybe hard for the mother to meet again with the baby, but deep down in her heart, she will know that the baby is safe and sound.

Moreover, nowadays, there are “bank bayi” where the baby will be put in a capsule and there is no registration needed for the name of the mother or father. By setting up these “bank bayi” government hope that the baby can be given a chance to survive. So, there are ways to keep the bay born out of wedlock and the abortion is cruel and unethical. Still, don’t have sex before marriage is the best way to cope with the issue or do some precaution.

A Question of Dowry and Everything’s Arranged

Thanks to these both story, I was exposed to the genuine purpose of dowry system among the Indian culture. From my understanding, the dowry which is in the form of land, gold or cash will be brought from the woman to her husband in a marriage. Dowry is supposed to act as a security or insurance to the bride when she is married to the bridegroom. But in these stories, dowry acted as a bribe and a gateway to marriage.

First, let us have a look at the story “Everything’s Arranged”. Here, the dowry acts as a bribe for the bridegroom family so that Rukumani will be able to get married faster. This is because there are rumors that Rukumani is in love with a Chinese boy, Johnny. So, in order to save the marriage form going on, the parents of Rukumani increase $20,000 in the dowry “Already gossips were spreading rumours, and if these rumours reached the ears of the bridegroom’s family, they might withdraw their offer, and it would be impossible to marry Rukumani off.” By using the reason to “save the risk of family disgrace” I don’t think that the dowry system is being well treated here.

In the second story “A Question of Dowry”, the dowry acts as a gateway to marriage. In more explicit meaning will be if the bride family can afford to give the dowry then the marriage will be continue, if not then it will not be happening. Mr. Ramachandran couldn’t afford to buy a necklace for his daughter as her dowry because the land that he supposed to sell off is depleted in its value. And so when he called up Thiruchelvam who is the bridegroom and told him about the situation, he cancelled the wedding without second thoughts and so “Sivasothie aka the bride to be went into the kitchen, he head bow modestly.” From this we can see that the dowry is not treated fairly because the bridegroom sees the dowry as something vital in a marriage but in my opinion, you will still marry a girl without worried much about the dowry if you truly love the girl. LOVE is the core in building a family and dowry is just an insurance.