1.
Coach Carter is based on the true story of a Richmond High School basketball
coach who tries to effect positive change in a group of student athletes who
have given up hope on creating successful future.
Q: How dose Coach Carter
accomplish positive change and how are his methods similar and/or different
Erin Gruwell’s (Freedom Writers) methods? Give example and details from the movie.
A:
Coach Carter accomplishes positive change by contracting
with the students and forcing them to obey his rules. Also, he punishes the
students when they complain to his order.
Erin’s location and
Carter’s one are similar. Coach Carter went to a high school of low income area,
and Erin Gruwell did, too. However, Erin’s school had race issue, and Carter’s
school didn't have it at least on the surface. Also, in Erin’s school, the
students stressed by the parents and the same race persons, and the problem is
bigger than anything else, so they didn't study. In Carter’s school, the
students didn't get motivate in studying, and the surroundings thought that
they couldn't study well and could only play basketball.
Coach Carter wanted
the students to study, or to enter a university, and to have hopes for their
future. He ordered the students to get a 2.3 grade, to attend all classes, and
to sit down in front of teachers in classes, in the contract. He told the parents
of the students that they would get stipend money from SAT if they would get a
2.3 grade. It showed us that he thought
the students would enter a university. Also, he thought the surrounding of the
students made them not study but play basketball. In these points, his methods
are similar to Erin’s methods.
He forced the students
to study by the contract. He punished the students disordering his rules
strictly. He ordered 1000 push-up when the member of the team disordered or
complained to his order. Also, he didn't stop the students leaving the team. When
Cruz left the team, he said some words, and he didn't stop him. In these
points, his methods are different from Erin’s methods.
2.
At beginning of the basketball season Coach Carter gets his players to sign a
contract.
Q: What were the main items of
the contract? And why do you think Coach Carter had the players sign such a
contract before they could play? Do you agree or disagree with this?
A:
The main items of the contract are about studying. The students must attend to
all classes. In the class, they must sit down at the front row of the classes. They
must maintain a 2.3 glade average. The others are a dress code and coming 5 minutes
before practices start. In the scenes of the lockout the gym, he told the
citizens that to end the lockout meant not to have honor the rules. He wanted
the students to learn having honor to rules and thought that it’s important for
the students not only to play basketball in high school but also to have hopes
for their future. The hopes would be made by studying, he thought. These are
why Coach Carter had the players sign such a contract.
To have honor rules is important, but contracting
with the students went too far, so I disagree with the way he did. He could
provide the rules without the contracts. In fact, the student studied after the
lockout ended, and it’s because the students understood his thought, not
because obeying the contract.
3.
When Coach Carter found out that over half of his team was failing he suspended
all practice sessions and forfeited the following games.
Q: Why do you think he did that?
What does the expression, “student-athlete mean?” Do you agree or disagree with
the meaning of this expression?
A:
The team became stronger, and the students got carried away. However, the
students didn't study enough, and the contract was failed. He wanted them to
study and to maintain the grade to enter the university. He didn't think that
was going to end well and thought something had to be done about that. These
are why he did that.
The expression, “student-athlete”, means the
player is not athlete but student.
Students have to study. Studying is first and playing sports is next for
the students. I agree with the meaning of this expression. Surrounding of the
players shouldn't think they can only play basketball. They should study, too,
and they can study as they can play basketball. In these days, it is said that
the baseball players in high school play harder than pro-baseball players. It’s
the same problem.
4.
At various times throughout the movie, Coach Carter asks Cruz, “what is your
deepest fear young man?”
Q: What do you think Coach Carter
meant by that? How does Cruz answer Coach Carter and what do you think his
answer means?
A:
Cruz was unbalanced and he left the team when the things he disliked happened. Also he became a drag dealer with his cousin. Coach
Carter wanted Cruz to have something unshakable, such as thinking a thing
happening is better than his deepest fear, or to make an effort to avoid the
deepest one. Coach Carter wanted him to be disillusioned by that.
He answered their deepest fear is not that
they are inadequate and that they are powerful beyond measure. He told;
“Our deepest fear is not that we
are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure. It is
our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the
world. There is nothing enlightened
about shining so that other people won’t feel insecure around you….”
This
answer is quoted from A Return To Love
written by Marianne Williamson. I understand the passage as the message meaning
when I fear something, I can grow up.
However, his answer meant another. The team or students were thought they
couldn't study well and could only play basketball. Also, other students were
similar, so, in that situation, if they had studied hard, they would have gone
out of those students. It means they will be misfits in the situation. That is
fear, but Coach Carter taught them to do their best and to have hope by doing
hard, and, if they play hard and have hope, the surroundings will notice they
can do too. These are the meaning of his answer.
5.
At the end of the movie during the locker room scene Coach Carter tells his
team that he failed to meet his objectives for the basketball season.
Q: What did he mean by that? Give
specific example from movie.
A:
He said “I came to coach basketball players, and you became students. I came to
teach boys, and you became men.” and “You got inner victory.” His objectives
are to coach basketball players and to teach boys, but they became students and
men, so he failed to meet his objectives. Also, inner victory is not to give up
and to go on playing. It’s more precious
than to win games. The team lost the game but got inner victory.
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