When she returns armed with candy bars and the visceral poetry of Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night," they respond, and eventually accept her as their teacher. LouAnne must be flexible to be a good teacher, she cannot simply force her students to learn, and her choices are thus limited in the approaches she can take. She must have a sense of humor, and use her background as a marine to impress them as well as to discipline them.
Even after being exposed to LouAnne's teachings, the fate of her students is far from assured. Had she been born in different circumstances, Callie would likely never have felt pressured to engage in unprotected sex. Callie must balance the social expectations of her environment with her own innate intelligence -- it is not fully reflective of her life's challenges to merely say that Callie should 'choose' to be abstinent, given that like any young girl she is torn between the need for approval from her boyfriend and her ambition. Only because she is poor, the consequences are much greater if she decides to have...
But it is much easier to make good choices if one is wealthy, has good teachers, and positive role models. It is also easier to 'choose' to be a committed teacher if the students in a class have few diversionary social pressures to impact their education. Emilio believes he has no choice but to fight, and while technically that is not true, psychologically his past influences must be taken into consideration when judging him as a character. Dangerous Minds makes a persuasive case for the need for more positive social forces in the lives of young people, but it would be a misreading of the film to suggest that force of will and choice on an individual level alone can change the world.
Work Cited
Dangerous Minds. Directed by John N. Smith. 1995.
