Precious

There's always something wrong with these tests. These tests paint a picture of me with no brain. These tests paint a picture of me and my mother, my whole family as less than dumb. Just ugly black grease, need to be wiped away, find a job for.

Clarice Precious Jones

Bleak and horrifying. A heartbreaking drama that explores the depths of human suffering and the struggle to rise above it. A movie worth watching.

Cut the story short, illiterate and morbidly obese 16 year old Clarice Precious Jones is pregnant with her second child by her father and lives in Harlem with her physically and emotionally abusive mother. The principal of Precious’ school recommends her for an alternative schooling program called Each One Teach One. It is here, with the help of a self-assured teacher and a group of girls that her journey of self-discovery begins. The film’s mostly shot in a realist style, with effective fantasy sequences as Precious attempts to escape abuse. The redemption storyline relies upon an inspirational teacher who not only patiently teaches and encourages her students to write in their journal, but also a friend who loves and cares about her students.

The cast and acting really worked the movie well. I almost cracked up seeing Lenny Kravitz as a male nurse John McFadden, Mariah Carey virtually unrecognisably normal looking social worker Mrs. Weiss, and Mo’Nique the mother, a monster named with grim irony, Mary. Mary’s fierce and fearless performance holds the story together and takes it to another level. My favourite and most convincing scene was when Mary ineffectually explains her treatment of Precious to Mrs. Weiss. Though I despised Mary’s character, she does not let us hate her, she opened herself up, she forces us to look into the source of her damaged heart, and that moment, more than any other, shows us what Precious has had to overcome. I cannot help but pity Mary’s character, despite her actions being completely unforgiveable.

It was hard for me to sit through the movie; it sure stroked my emotional chords. The movie was not preachy in any way; it makes one think of the many possibilities in life. The choices that we make and the chances that we take.

What if I come across students like this in my classroom in the future? What would I do? What can I do? What should I do? Questions like these are the subjects that I do not have the precise answers to.

There is that thin line between being a teacher and being a social worker. As an aspiring teacher myself, I believe some teachers are indeed social workers. If not all at least there are some that are receptive enough to their students needs. I do want to be one of those teachers who can make a difference in a student’s life. In my opinion, being a teacher is not just going into class and shove learning down the students’ throat. As teacher, and a human being, we are here to EDUCATE, and not just TEACH. By EDUCATE I mean making the students aware of their life, their choices, their chances, and the consequences. 12 years of schooling will become of nothing if the students are not exposed to the real world. The world is not all the time beautiful, it is indeed cruel.

In Precious’ case, I sincerely believe that the second pregnancy would not had happened if her teachers was receptive enough to her conditions. If there was at least one teacher who cares enough of Precious’ wellbeing, that teacher could have a little sense of what is going in Precious’ life. Precious would had opened up earlier to anyone who is close enough to her and cares enough about her. If she could open up to the social worker after some push, I personally believe that she could be saved if someone pushed her to talk about her pregnancy earlier. From what I can notice from the movie, all that Precious needed is some attention, motivation, somebody she can talk to. In school and unable to write at 16, there is definitely something amiss, she must be suffering from a learning difficulty, any teacher would have noticed that; but what did they do to help? I know being teachers does not mean that they are superheroes able to save everyone from obscurity, but I believe early detection of illiteracy in schools and proper intervention of programs that aids in literacy is crucial in inhibiting the other damages that can happen in the future.

Ok, maybe what I am saying here seemed a bit too farfetched to some. The teachers in our classrooms could not be bothered to do anything else but finishing up with the syllabus in preparation of examinations. But as human beings, we are obligated to treat our students as human beings who are with emotions. With proper help our students with learning difficulties can learn to read and write well. Early identification is critical, and teacher preparation should facilitate this. Learning difficulties have serious effects on an individual’s wider academic, social and emotional development. Early detection and treatment is the key to helping them achieve in school and in life. As educators we need to be sensitive toward our students’ learning disabilities and must always be looking for new methods to help them in their learning development. We must work at our best capacity to help them succeed in an academic environment.

Some folks has a lot of things around them that shines for other peoples. I think that maybe some of them was in tunnels. And in that tunnel, the only light they had, was inside of them. And then long after they escape that tunnel, they still be shining for everybody else.

Clarice Precious Jones