Teaching Re-cap!

A couple weeks ago I showed "The Blindside" in my classes. Last week we finished the movie and I had them get into groups and discuss some questions. The main question I wanted them to answer was, "If you were in the Touhy family's position, do you think you would do the same thing for Michael? Why or why not?" I had the students write down their individual answers and hand them in to me. I would say, more than half of the students said they would do the same thing as the Touhy family did. Here are some of their answers.


Yes I will…

"We should take pleasure in serving others."

"No matter how serious the racial discrimination was, the woman just did what the intuition led her to do. She expressed freedom, independent, good faith, and also broke up the shackles of traditional thought."

"Yes, I will help him. Today you help him, maybe someday you will turn to him for help." This one is interesting, because a friendship in the Chinese culture has an element of 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' I know this is evident in the American culture, but it's not really something you would showcase as one of your characteristics. In the Chinese culture, it's just part of a friendship.

"I think love should be shared as long as we have this kind of ability. We think helping people will not only bring happiness to everyone, but it also makes my heart full of love by watching others happiness. We are moved by Leigh Anne and her whole family’s unselfish actions. It breaks up our normal notion about the wealthy people."

"Of course we will, although he is black, his heart is sunshine. He is upward. Not only brings us happiness also let us grow."

One girl said all of these wonderful things about Michael’s character and how good of a person he is... then added this at the end, “The last, I think Mike is very big, so he can protect me. Haha…” Haha! She wrote that on her homework! “Haha…” That cracked me up!

"If I have enough money, I can." This was part of a lot of the answers and just simple as that. The money part concerned a lot of the students, and they didn't think they could help in any way with out money.

“I think love is human smoothes the scar.” Just read that a couple of times and you can figure out what he was trying to say. The most ironic thing about this is the student who wrote this is named Blade Master.


No I won’t…

"To me, he is a stranger who I know little about. I am uncertain if he is really in trouble."

"Bringing up a black isn’t a simple thing…my other kids could not accept this big man. Their life wouldn’t be harmonious."

"I already have two children, I don’t need another child."

"As our traditional culture, it’s very hard to us to accept a man who is so different from us. Especially we consider Michael’s size and strength, he’s a bear of a man. He might hurt my children."

"He looks like a big monster. Maybe if I was Leigh Anne, I will not adopt Michael. Perhaps I will give him some money. Love is broad and selfless, maybe I should learn from Leigh Anne."

I'm just gonna leave it at that. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! I love you all!