The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
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makes him realize there is more to life than eaming big money. He sells
an advertising trophy he eamed early in his career and uses the money
not only to buy the airline ticket for his daughter’s trip but also an
expensive telescope. W ith the remainder he buys tickets so his students
can attend a performance of Henry V. More important, Rago realizes he
has a talent for teaching, demonstrated by his interest in staying on and
assisting the next batch o f recruits who will need his help.
The same dramatic structure charting self-discovery organizes
the plots o f the other two films. When he Starts teaching, Shoop o f
Summer School also has no idea what to do and, like Rago, asks his
students for ideas. In Shackles, Cross fumbles around until he buys a
copy o f Alan Ginsberg’s Howl from a Street vendor. The poem inspires
him to help his students gain control o f their lives by teaching them to
write poems about their experiences. Both these teachers experience the
same sort o f crisis Rago does. In Summer School Shoop is forced to
accede to Student demands if he wants their Cooperation, but he comes to
think he is wasting his time when they add further demands in exchange
for their continued Cooperation. He storms out o f the classroom in
disgust and anger. Cross’s students lose their faith in him when they
think he has been angling for another job at a local high school. The
scene o f their discovery is reminiscent o f Renaissance Man, though
nastier. Düring a math dass, Cross’s most talented poet, a teenager
named Gabriel, becomes angry because he thinks that Cross is letting his
students down. “You don’t care about us,” Gabriel shouts at him.
“Y ou’re just as much a loser as the rest o f us.”
Like Rago, both teachers weather the crisis and grow as a result
o f it. In leaming how to teach English, Shoop realizes he can teach, and
the newly acquired knowledge prompts him to grow up. Cross’s story
ends tragically, but not before he leams what it means to be a teacher. He
teils his ex-wife: “I always thought that being a good teacher was about
good scores, but it’s not about the scores. It’s about those kids. It’s about
connecting with them. Maybe even inspiring them.” He later teils a
television reporter that he has leamed what teaching is all about. “Can
one teacher change the world, one Student at a time? A while ago I
thought that w asn’t possible. But here at Shackleton, these children have
taught me what it is to be a teacher, to connect and make a difference.”
The films in which the protagonists are English teachers by
choice appear to be different, but they have much in common with the
protagonists in the above films. They are inexperienced teachers in trying
circumstances entrusted with motivating at-risk students to take their