We watched a movie called "The Emperor's Club" starring Kevin Klein last night. It was...interesting. (Just for a head's up, I am going to talk about specifics in the movie, so if you don't want it to be given away, watch it first if you'd like, then read this..)
For those who are familiar with the following label, it was a "broken" movie: a movie where good and bad are clearly defined in truth, but the bad "wins." Or rather, neither do, but it is a very powerful statement about at least two things:
#1 The power of boundaries in parenting and mentoring: The youth in the movie begins to be transformed by a teacher who actually stands for something. The teacher talks about the need for morals, good and bad, and lives it. The youth is impressed despite his spoiled, willfully rebellious personality, and changes. Then, at a competition, the teacher discovers that this same youth is cheating. When the teacher wants to call him on it, the administrator tells him to let it go (the youth's father is a powerful senator and large contributor to the school), and the competition continues, but the teacher is able to ask the cheating youth a question he hadn't prepared to answer and so the youth loses the last round.
However, the teacher later confronts the youth about his cheating, and the youth asks the teacher why the teacher didn't call the youth on it then. The teacher says, "It's complicated." The youth says, "Was it because of my father?" And, although the teacher denies it, the youth recognizes the truth of the situation, and spends the rest of his years at school, and then in life, reverted to that first rebellious condition.
I just finished reading "Five Love Languages for Teens" and this is one point that the author stresses: youth recognize honesty and need boundaries of decency to thrive.
This youth had neither.
#2 The power of honesty in society: You see the ripple affect of this moment of lack of honesty in a powerful way, as the youth goes onto to recreate the original competition 25 years later, (complete with cheating) in an attempt to draw attention to himself so he can declare his intent to run as governor. He invites the teacher to conduct the competition once again, the teacher once again picks up on his cheating, once again doesn't publicly call him on it, and then they have an interesting conversation. The youth speaks cynically, representing the cynicism of our society: "It doesn't matter if I am dishonest if I can get ahead and get away with it."
I don't blame the teacher (the youth has his agency) but it reinforces the power of a mentor and his influence when he chooses to use it. (Side note: he is an excellent mentor in every other instance and I love his devotion to integrity, even in choosing to not be romantic with a married woman he obviously admires. He also teaches history in stories, with passion, and to shape his students...love that!)
I am glad I watched this movie. Even if the boy "seems" to get away with it, you can see the negative effect of it and the negative ripples it has on the behavior of himself and his peers. His class goes on to be rowdy and disrespectful, even carrying that behavior into their adulthood in embarrassing ways. You can see the wrongness of it in the teacher's demeanor and reactions to the behavior, to the dishonesty, and I feel that good and bad are portrayed in beautiful starkness.
*warning: couple scenes and profanity. Check out the "kidsinmind" website to get specifics, and make the call for yourself. I seldom endorse movies and don't this one: it's just some food for thought :).
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