Also known as: "between the walls", or "within the wall", on the one hand is the closed school, on the other side is the integrated society, they are separated by a high school wall; on the one hand is the student's life, on the other side is the school system, they are separated by the invisible wall, in fact, one side and the other, is separated by the wall, and within this "wall", those black and white, those boys and girls, express their thoughts in an individual way, but in the isolated reality, they are insisting and compromising. The contradiction between strife and punishment speaks for this society to a limited extent, and the so-called institutions and rules sometimes lead them to fission, to the reality of more estrangement.
Newly renovated schools, newly cleaned classrooms, newly arranged teachers, and new semesters, for each student and teacher, it seems to be a new node to open a dialogue, but in fact, this new is just a continuation of the old order, before the return day dinner, the teachers introduced themselves, three years of physical education, four years of physics teaching, more than ten years of retired old teachers, they almost all have accumulated a wealth of teaching experience here, but they almost face the same problem: how to manage every classmate François Marin, as a Language teacher and class teacher, is unfamiliar with these children, and is unfamiliar with management problems, and when he enters the class as a manager, enters the classroom, and enters the "between the walls", he encounters a kind of helplessness.
Disobedience, and even finding fault, seems to be common to these students. In the first class of the school, Marin felt the habit of procrastination and confusion among the students, and after the class, he did not sit in his seat for 15 minutes, he called these 15 minutes "wasted time", and the questioning of the students was that we had never been in an hour of class, that is, the 15 minutes before the class was a kind of routine preparation, and if these 15 minutes were included in the class, it would obviously break the original rules. So in 15 minutes, someone was lazily back to their seats, someone was still talking loudly, someone was still walking between desks, and even after 15 minutes, Marin asked everyone to write their names on paper, and the so-called discipline hadn't changed radically, someone was still playing with their phones, someone was trimming their nails with scissors, and some were sleeping there.
Director: Lauren Guntai Screenwriter: François Bégaudeau / Robin Campillo / Lauren Guntai Starring: François Bégaudeau / Agame Malembo-Emene / Angélica Sancio / Arthur Fogel Production Country/Region: France Release Date: 2008-09-24 (France) Length: 128 minutes aka: Me and My Little Devils (Station) / Problem Classroom / Middle School Classroom / Between Walls / Inside Walls / High School Classroom / The Class
After starting the class, Marin did not let everyone enter his rhythm, but each student's different expressions broke the rhythm at any time, and even made him cry and laugh. In class, Marin used the name "Bill" and cheese as a food when you taught them the new word "juicy," but just by example, the students continued to raise objections. Quemba and Acerameda think that "Bill" is a white name, they don't like to use the name to make sentences, they want to change it to "Aizata", while Raba thinks that cheese is never a delicious and juicy food, it even emits a stink, and the teacher uses cheese to explain that the word "delicious and juicy" is deliberately making him uncomfortable. When learning the "straight lyrical virtual tone", Kunba said that this grammatical tense is not useful at all in reality, some people say that this is a "medieval language", and when Marin replaces it with "when the virtual style is not completed", some students ask, in what situation is this tense used, Marin said, some vassal style authors will use, and then everyone asks, what is vassal style elegance, ? Homosexuality is it? When it comes to gays, some students think that children who have such thoughts will be locked up in Guantanamo prison, and they think that the teacher Marin is an adult and can play with homosexuality, "This is not shameful." They comforted Marin even when he denied he was gay.
From the word "delicious and juicy" involving racially colored names, from virtual era discussions to homosexuality, of course, far beyond the original teaching plan, Marin even kept explaining, constantly pulling back the rhythm of the effort, but the students are always carrying out different deconstructions, and even began to disrupt the order of the classroom. Nathan raised his hand to say that his pen was broken and that the ink had leaked in his hand, then Laba got up to hand him a handkerchief, and when he walked over, he accidentally fell, and the female classmate shouted loudly: He took the opportunity to touch my chest. Then everyone laughed, there was cacophony, there was chaos, Jean, Marin did not know how to maintain order, and later when Marin raised his voice and quieted down, Nathan used the excuse to go out and wash his dirty hands, but when the class was over, he did not return to the classroom.
Movie poster for "Classroom Storm"
In fact, there seems to always be a chasm between the student and the teacher, with Laba sitting in the back row with himself in mind; Kunba stubbornly refusing when asked to read an essay; Suleiman always chewing gum in class, looking like he has nothing to do... For the class teacher, Marin, he is first and foremost a manager, shouldering the responsibility of maintaining order in the classroom, so in the classroom where the students are messing around, he needs a kind of top-down majesty, and when he asks the students to read a new text, Kunba refuses this request because she has not prepared, and Marin asks her to talk about it after class. After the class, everyone left, Marin first asked her for the parent exercise book, when Kunba casually handed him, he asked Kunba to politely give it to him, Kunba did it, but when asked why there was no pre-study text, Kunba's answer was: It's not me, why are you looking for my stubble? Marin asks her to apologize and teaches him how to apologize to the teacher, but Kunba looks idle, stressing that I am not alone, and then saying that my mother is waiting for me, and Malin patiently teaches her to apologize again, "To be complete." Kunba finally said this, and when she walked out of the classroom with the two women waiting for her outside the door, she turned to Marlin and said, "Actually, I really don't intend to apologize to you." A man stood in Marlin in the classroom, angrily kicking the stool to the ground.
Entering the school, going out is a society, in fact, for these students, their views, styles and attitudes, obviously affected by society, these children of different skin colors, from different countries, are sitting in this small classroom, and this is not a harmonious space, what they are looking for seems to be more of a personality under the surface of harmony, but the search for this personality is somewhat blind, a little confused, just like the Arthur who always wears a black coat. He said that his dress was to show himself, and no matter what others said, I only did myself. These students seem to be in a state where no matter how the teacher lectures, no matter how they manage, they always emphasize their point of view with various reasons, but this may not be real personality, when Marin asks Arthur, you dress and behave in the same way as other people, when this same state affects you, how does personality manifest?
Marin let everyone write an essay is to introduce themselves, about their favorite things and dislike people, about their own strengths and weaknesses, this is Marin's opportunity to know them, but also the opportunity for students to understand themselves, Xiao Wei from China likes to play games, because the language is not well learned and does not like to interact with people, always "allergic" in school; Suleiman does not like to tell his secrets to others, so his composition only has a simple sentence, and the tattoo on his arm is: "If the language is not as silent, then keep silent." "The new Arrival Carl hated math, hated racism, hated technology, and Raba loved rap, hated school and women... This is the self in their hearts, this is the self they know, but is this self a complete and unique self? In fact, this problem is not only impossible for the students themselves to explain, but even Marin, the class teacher and administrator, cannot know what they really think.
So outside of the classroom where students question him, argue with him, and even express their anger with emotion, Marin, as a member of the teacher, as the administrator of the school, within another wall, also experienced certain conceptual questions and debates. Many teachers have no confidence in these children, and some even tell the director of education directly that they do not want to take this class. In the school discipline system, some teachers advocate the use of a deduction system, if the student deducts points because of the punishment, it means that they need to talk individually; and when the school evaluates the student, the school will invite the class representative and the classroom teacher to score together; when a student makes a more serious mistake, it is through the disciplinary committee to vote for the student's behavior for the final punishment. Therefore, for school management, the system is constantly improving and reflects the severity, but this kind of institutional management, in Malin's view, can not play the best effect, on the contrary, sometimes it will cause greater harm.
So Marin is actually between the student and the system, he is more of an intermediary, on the one hand, in contact with the students to understand them, on the other hand, must implement the school system, and this role of the middleman makes Marin trapped in an embarrassment, so in order to resolve the embarrassment, resolve the contradiction, Marin also tried to eliminate this contradiction in his own way, and establish a mutually inclusive relationship with the children. In the face of children's various views and questions in the classroom, and even unreasonable, he is almost always smiling and tirelessly explaining to them, and outside the class, he also contacts with the parents of the students, listens to their attitudes towards the children from different sides, and cares for the children's lives. So when Suleiman was making materials for introducing himself on the computer, he found that Suleiman's photos were very good, so he asked him to print out the photos, and then paste them on the wall, so that every classmate came to appreciate, and in the praise of his classmates, Suleiman also seemed to have a confidence in his smile.
On the other hand, Marin also put forward his own views on the measures to go to schools, such as the deduction system, he believes that it cannot be one-size-fits-all, that sometimes punishment is not the only way, to improve the punishment mechanism, on the other hand, positive measures should be taken to encourage children, and even the use of a bonus point system. And when Suleiman faced the disciplinary committee's decision to dismiss him because of a serious incident, he also stressed that such an approach was unscientific, "Suleiman was punished, indicating that everything he had done before had become useless." He even reiterated that day's move was Suleiman's first, "I don't want to manage them by punishing them." Marin tried to institutionally retain Suleiman, but his idea was interpreted by other teachers as a "false peace."
In fact, whether it is this tolerance of students or the accusation of the school system, Marin hopes to establish a bridge of communication between students and the school, and truly integrate everyone. But a classroom is not simply surrounded by a wall, Xiao Wei's mother is arrested, Marin and the school can make efforts in a willing way, and even the two wishes of the newly pregnant teacher are for a kind of harmony: One is to hope that Xiao Wei can stay, but hope that his future children can be as smart as Xiao Wei, but in fact, this effort cannot change the reality, can not change the larger society outside, and cannot change the issue of fairness, race and social and cultural integration.
Suleiman's affair eventually became an irreconcilable contradiction, the concentrated outbreak of these problems. First the immigrant Nathan from Morocco talked about the African Cup of Nations to be held, Morocco was the strongest team, and the Mali team did not appear at all, his words caused many people to be dissatisfied, including Suleiman from Mali, Suleiman later spilled his anger on Marin' body, because when he came to evaluate the students, Marin made suggestions to Suleiman, and AceRameda and Louise, who represented the class, told Suleiman, Marin said bad things about Suleiman, saying that he was useless, Suleiman thought that Marin was "retaliating" against him. The misunderstood Marin is so angry that he even says to Acerameda and Louise, "You're all stupid women who are not serious." On the one hand, Suleiman burst into foul language in class, left the class without heeding advice, and even inadvertently reached Thea's eyebrows, causing Thea to shed blood; on the other hand, Acerameda and Louise told marlin's words to the school, thinking that they were either serious women or that they were "prostitutes".
Although Marin defended Suleiman in front of the school teachers, and although Marin explained in front of Acerameda and Louise that he was angry, all to no avail, and Suleiman was eventually expelled from the school and even sent back to Mali after the disciplinary committee's investigation and vote. In the end, the school's mediation did not make any sense, on the one hand, all the students who entered the disciplinary committee to investigate according to the usual practice were expelled, on the other hand, Suleiman's mother told the school in Malian that Suleiman was a good child, he took care of his younger siblings, and from time to time he helped me to do things, but the final decision could not be changed, and when Suleiman and her mother left the school and walked out of the high wall, what was left was a silent sigh.
Coming from different classes, from different countries, with different skin tones, what they need is integration in this "immigrant society" within this wall, but this integration is not about abandoning the self to compromise with society, not simply sitting together and accepting the same culture, "I want to shape the school into a resonance box, a space torn by noise, a miniature world with constant problems: a world full of fairness and injustice, work and rights, discrimination, but also social and cultural integration." Director Lauren Guntai said, like Suleiman's mother who can't speak French, like Xiao Wei, whose mother was arrested, like Karl, who was ridiculed for saying that he was French, like Marin who changed everyone's attitude through his own efforts, they are in this school within the walls, but they actually open the door to the real world through this miniature society, race and culture, individuals and societies, it seems that they are always united in the estrangement, but also always create contradictions in integration.