Adolescence the Documentary, Pressure Cooker

Adolescence

The documentary, Pressure Cooker chronicles the senior life of three students (Tyree, Fatoumata, and Erica) who are in the Culinary Arts program at Philadelphia's Frankford High School during their senior year. This documentary also highlights their interaction with their tough, but extremely caring instructor, Wilma Stephenson. These three students, as well as the entire class are hopeful of getting scholarships to some of the top culinary programs in the United States. The documentary focuses on these three students and the struggles they are dealing with during their final year in high school.

Through this documentary we can learn about resilience and perseverance. These two characteristics are something that all three of the students possessed. Even though all three children highlighted in the documentary had more responsibilities outside of the classroom than any teenager should be allowed to have, they were all determined to succeed. We can also learn through their culinary instructor, Wilma Stephenson how to rule with an iron fist along with a soft heart. At the very beginning of the documentary, Stephenson seemed like the teacher we all loved to hate during our high school years. However, a few minutes into the film the viewer not only gets a taste of her tough as nails side, but we also learn that she is passionate about what she does as well as her student's future. By the time the documentary is over, many viewers are probably left wishing they had had someone like Stephenson in their lives.

All three students showed amazing maturity at such a young age because they all had a lot of responsibilities. Tyree was the oldest child in his single parent family and took on most of the duties of caring for his younger sisters by cooking and cleaning, as well as being a role model. Fatoumata was taken from her mother in West Africa at a young age. She was sent to live with her father who was very controlling and whom she barely knew. He did nothing to encourage her to excel and she did the majority of the cooking and cleaning for the family. Erica lives in a blended family with her father and stepmother. She is the primary caregiver for her younger sister who is legally blind. On the outside, there were all mature well beyond their years, but on the inside each student was at a different stage in their lives.

Tyree appeared to be in the school age stage. His outward appearance and responsibilities may make this assessment seem farfetched, but the through the documentary we get a sense that cooking is probably no more than a new skill that he wished to learn since he did most of the cooking for his family. His main focus was on getting a football scholarship and he did not seem to have the desire to get a culinary scholarship like the other two students. He showed that he was capable of learning a new skill besides playing football, and he also showed that he was eager to go away to college on a football scholarship to probably escape (if only temporarily) is surroundings. Tyree did not appear to want to get away from everything, but he seemed to want to get away to learn something new so he could come back and make things better for his family.

Fatoumata appeared to be in the middle adulthood stage, even though she's just a teenager. She exhibited the strongest show of maturity out of the three students. This is not suggesting that her responsibilities were greater than the others. She just seemed to have this mature resolve about her situation that she would break out of it and she wouldn't have it any other way. Fatoumata was extremely determined and focused. Although she didn't have the support from her parents, she had much support from her classmates as well as Stephenson. She was mature enough to appreciate all the things that this country had to offer and didn't take them for granted, but seemed to know that she needed to take advantage of every opportunity that came her way in order to break free from her circumstances.

Erica appeared to be in the adolescent stage. She may have had to carry the heaviest burden out of all three teenagers and she did it well. Yet, on the inside there was a certain desperation. It was almost as if she felt she had to rid herself of her responsibilities by getting a scholarship and that if she didn't win money for school her life was over. She didn't appear to have a backup plan in case the culinary thing fell through. She appeared more desperate than determined. In this stage, we discover who we are apart from our families and that is what she was seeking to do.

Ms. Stephenson was clearly in the late adulthood stage. She had a toughness about her that was mixed with grace and extreme wisdom that she imparted on her students. She served as a surrogate mother for many of the students and was genuinely involved in their overall welfare. If I had a certain amount of money to spend on interventions to help any one of the three students, I would spend it on Erica and feel that Ms. Stephenson would support this choice.