Different views on
education and their impact on people’s lives as reflected in the Hollywood
movie
Good Will Hunting
This
material is the outcome of project work conducted during The Summer Institute
For The Study of The United States for Secondary School Teachers & Teacher
Trainers organized by the Institute for Training and Development (ITD) at
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A. from 18 June to 31 July 1999. The program was
funded by the USIA and Fulbright Commissions around the globe.
For more
information about this program look up the following Website:
http://www.schule.bremen.de/schulen/IEF/TSI/start.htm
This
material was developed by Dr. Martina Jaenichen-Koepp with the
support of Chris Gould as mentor from Amherst Regional High
School and Edgardo Rothkegel as advisor from the ITD staff. I
highly appreciate the cooperation with these colleagues without whom the
development of material like this, especially
when it comes to questions regarding
language and culture, would not have been possible. Thank you.
Structure of material
You can
call up every aspect of the material separately which provides you with the
opportunity to chose the material most suitable for your students. Every
section includes pre-viewing, while-viewing and after-viewing activities.
The
material is structured in the following way:
1. Introduction: Discussing the meaning of education in general
1.1. The meaning of education in my own life.
1.2. Personal comments on statements concerning
education by VIPs.
2.
Working with the movie I: Will Hunting's attitudes towards education
and career
Will Hunting - a mathematical genius with a photographic memory coming from
the
Irish working-class district of South Boston – has to make decisions
that will have an
everlasting impact on his life
We are going to watch five
episodes from the movie Good Will
Hunting that will
help us get an impression of various attitudes towards education and
career in the
USA at present.
The worksheet
will help to focus on
the main ideas and provides a framework
for an
essay that you will write afterwards. The essay will deal with the
different
roles of education in people’s lives in the USA and elsewhere (e.g. in
Germany).
2.1. 1st episode: At a Harvard
Bar
2.3. 3th episode: At Gerald Lambeau's Office
2.4. 4rd episode: At Sean Maguire's Office
2.5. 5th episode: At the Parking Lot of a Construction Site
3. Summary and essay writing: Influence of education
and career on people's lives
4. Working
with the movie II: Character, social responsibility and gifted persons
Episodes 6 and 7 focus primarily
on Professor Gerald Lambeau and his relationship
to the aspects of education and career that shaped his life. The 4th
episode can also be
used to discuss these topics from the mentioned perspective.
4.1. and 4.2. - Episodes 6 and 7: At Two
Different Restaurants
5. Summary and essay writing: Social
responsibility and the treatment of gifted persons
6. Suggestions for further work / projects
