Dangerous Minds 🎥 1995 Movie Info

Plot Summary

LouAnne Johnson, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, applies for a high school teaching job and is surprised and pleased to be offered the position with immediate effect, even though it is a low paying job. Showing up the next day to begin teaching, however, she finds herself confronted with a classroom of tough, sullen teenagers, all from low-income working-class backgrounds, involved in gang warfare and drug pushing, flatly refusing to engage with anything.

They immediately coin the nickname “White Bread” for LouAnne, due to her race and apparent lack of authority, to which LouAnne responds by returning the next day in a leather jacket and teaching them karate. The students show some interest in such activities, but withdraw when LouAnne tries to teach the curriculum. Desperate to reach the students, LouAnne devises classroom exercises that teach similar principles to the prescribed work but using themes and language that appeal to the students. She also tries to motivate them by giving them all an A grade from the beginning of the year and arguing that the only thing required of them is that they maintain it.

In order to introduce them to poetry, LouAnne uses the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” to teach symbolism and metaphor; once this is achieved, she progresses on to Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night”, inspired by a conversation with her co-worker Hal Griffith about his favorite poet, confusing Bob Dylan with Dylan Thomas. LouAnne rewards the students liberally, using candy bars, reward incentives, and a trip to a theme park. Her methods draw the attention of the school authorities, George Grandey and Carla Nichols, who try to force her to remain within the curriculum. A few particular students attract LouAnne’s interest for their personal problems.

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