Dangerous Minds

An ex-marine. A new teacher. A driving, inspirational force. Louanne Johnson. She is new to the world of teaching so when she is assigned a group of smart but tough inner-city students, she finds it rather overwhelming. However she manages to get their attention by coming to school the next day in a leather jacket and teaching them karate; but when she tries reverting to the given curriculum, she is thwarted as the class goes back to its noisy and unconventional state. But determined Louanne doesn’t give up; when the conventional methods fail to teach them anything, she crosses the line. Using candy bars and Bob Dylan she tries to reach out to her students; trying to inspire them, understand them and make them realize their full potential. But she is dealing with dangerous minds…will they let her get across to them or will they just treat her like they treated the others?

Dangerous Minds is a riveting and inspirational movie that I would encourage everybody to watch. Based on the bestselling autobiography ‘My Posse Does Not Do Homework’ by Louanne Johnson and directed by filmmaker John Smith, it is lead by Golden Globe winner Michelle Pfeiffer as Louanne Johnson and a star cast as her class of obnoxious but intelligent students. There are many lessons to be learnt from this movie; it shows you how one can reach into even the toughest looking people because everyone has a mutual enemy- fear; and if you can help conquer that then the person will trust you. But if there is one specific thing that this movie teaches you about, it’s choice. Louanne teaches her students that everyone has a choice. I feel that the most powerful line of the entire film is that “Everyone has a choice. You have a choice; when you are getting on that school bus, you are making a choice. You are choosing to get educated here rather than do what the other people your age are doing- selling drugs, booze, etc. Everyone in this classroom has made that choice. There are no victims present here.” This line changed the thinking of her students and subsequently the audience as well.

Dangerous Minds has an emotional as well as inspirational feel to it and the characters are overflowing with charisma and punk. I agree rules are there to help us but sometimes they just have to be defied.

Doctors: The World of Ultimate Medicine

Barney Livingston. Laura Castellano. Bennett Landsmann. Seth Lazarus. These are the doctors. Renowned author Erich Segal’s book follows the lives of the Harvard Medical School’s batch of ’62. Their innocence as young children which allowed them to freely probe their minds for a suitable profession as adults. Incidents as adolescents which struck them as inexcusable and which they vowed to change. Their laid back years in college which they made the most of, knowing they would be the last carefree years of their life. The late hours of working into the night, feverishly memorizing Biochemistry formulas and studying slides of carcinoma under borrowed microscopes or dissecting cadavers in Med School and finally the joy of being handed a degree which officially proclaimed them as fully fledged doctors; the novel is heartbreaking, witty, inspiring, gripping and utterly real.

Barney: A compassionate and trustworthy person Barney has always been a source of confession and advice. All his life people have treated him as unqualified “shrink” and it is this that encourages him to become a psychiatrist. But he soon realizes that the most desperate of all are his fellow doctors themselves.

Laura: A blonde with ironically both beauty and brains, Laura has since the age of sixteen been a target of affection for boys. But not Barney. He was different. He was her best friend, though the only one. For becoming a female doctor is difficult. Being a woman in a man’s profession, especially something like Medicine is a dream that can quickly turn into a nightmare…

Bennett: A lone black among whites Bennett has chosen a difficult profession to find success in. Being glared at by racist patients all the time isn’t something that is tolerated by everyone. But Bennett has lived with this prejudice his entire life and isn’t going to give in to it right now. But his biggest challenge will be to choose whether a single impulsive act is going to end his career as a gifted surgeon or not.

Seth: A young doctorate prodigy, Seth has the mind and body of an ideal physician. But even a doctor has secrets. Seth knows firsthand how a tragic illness can have a colossal effect on a family. His own brother was deprived of a proper life when his brain was damaged in a car accident, paralyzing him and causing him to live life dead. Seth vows to change the pain that was inflicted upon his family watching Howie lie invalid on a bed. Yet Seth will face a controversial choice: to use his skills as a brilliant physician to either save a life or take it.

Doctors is a must read for everyone. It is a true insight into the unknown world of doctors and (quoting Larry King, USA Today) is a page turner all the way.