To Sir with Love

Comm. 348
Karena Kumar
Brian
Linda

























To Sir With Love

In the film, To Sir With Love, various human characteristics are brought to light, of
these, the idea or notion that humans are able to adapt and change their way of thinking,
seems to be portrayed well throughout the movie. The movie highlights the experiences
of an African teacher working in a London school. The lead actor, Mack Thackeray,
struggles to win the respect and affection of his rebellious working class senior students
in a run down east side London School. The film depicts the challenges seen by both the
teacher and his students that ultimately result in their collaboration to change their ways
of thinking about each other and establish that cordial relationship between a leader and
his students.
To start off, Mark Thackeray also known as Sir does not really want to be a teacher; he
sees the job as a temporary placement that puts food on the his table and clothes on his
back, while he searches for a more lucrative position within the Engineering field for
which he has been trained. The film emphasis not only some of the challenges Thackeray
faces as a black man in a racist environment, but some of the obstacles that he has to
overcome at North Quay Secondary. While teaching at North Quay SecondaryIT is
seen only at the end of the film he finally is offered a job in an Engineering company
located outside of London.
Having put forth all of his time and energy into getting an education, he begins teaching
at North Quay Secondary. He finds his students rather rude, defiant, and disinterested.
Despite his ongoing efforts and attempts to communicate with his class, the students are
quite resilient and want no part in what he has to offer. While Thackerays method of
teaching was strictly student centered at a surface level, he began to change his
ideologies, his actions both initially and later implies that he was more concerned about
solving the problems he is experiencing with his class, rather than the problems being
faced by his students.
Model The Way

Thackeray establishes principles concerning the way his students should be treated and
how their goals should be pursued. He attempts to create standards of excellence and set
examples for others to follow suit. We see this in the very first lesson, in which
Thackeray attempts to analyze the credentials of his students. He sought to assess his
students level of proficiency in reading and arithmetic. Their results varied significantly,
this prompted remarks of sarcasm It is encouraging that you have a sense of humor: it
seems you know so little and are so easily amused that I can look forward to a very happy
time. He then went on and instructed his students to now copy down the following
tables (To Sir with Love 1967). This clearly shows that he is trying to set goals so that
his students can achieve small wins as they work towards a larger goal. Kouzes & Posner
(2002) suggest that two attributes are required for leaders to Model the Way. Leaders
have to find their own voice by stating their personal values and then you must set the
example by aligning actions and shared values. From analyzing Marks character, it
seems that he values a sense of community, a positive environment, he likes to make
contributions; he values people and their success; and he values their opinions and ideas.
Inspire A Shared Vision

In the movie To Sir With Love, Mark Thackeray is portrayed as being an effective
leader. As he makes a career switch from being an engineer into a rookie teacher, he
enters the profession with no background or previous experience, only to find he is
dealing with a classroom full of ill-mannered and irresponsible adolescents. Although,
the students are labeled as worthless, low-life individuals from other schools which were
made clear by the principle as well as other staff members. Thackeray enters the
classroom full of hope and, with a different perspective. Instantly, when he walks in he
notices what his co-workers were saying was quite accurate and finds himself struggling
to capture the attention of his students. However, it is at this pivotal point, when Mr.
Thackeray realizes the students lack of interest in learning the course materials, and
decides to throw out the textbooks and develops his own lesson plan. This is seen as an
attempt made by Thackeray to gain the attention of his students, he implements a lesson
plan that applies directly to his students being more focused on skills that students will
need to attain, to help them in everyday real-life situations. With his ability to recognize
his students needs and skill levels he shows one of the most important characteristics of
being an effective leader. As soon as he makes his decision to throw out the textbooks
and incorporate a new lesson plan he is directly influencing the students socialization
skills and work ethics.
As we can see from the movie, Mr. Thackeray faces many challenges; nevertheless he
never gave up and carries out his role as an educator. What makes a good leader relies
heavily on many factors. Consequently, an effective leader must possess the ability to
communicate thoroughly and effectively, by modeling good communication skills will
ensure success in ones life, especially since in order to function in todays society you
need to be an excellent communicator. Another characteristic of a good teacher is his
willingness to know and understand the strengths and weaknesses of his students. This is
very important in order to help the students learn and help with their comprehension of
assignments.
Moreover, teachers should display some nurturing as some students lack this in their
home life, as we see in Mr. Thackerays class most students come from broken homes. A
good teacher should put forth some ground rules where students have a say as to how
they should be implemented. If students feel their opinions have value, it fosters a culture
of respect towards the teacher as well as the other classmates. An effective leader teaches
patience, good decision making skills, positive behavior, and alternative measures.
Mark Thackeray displayed these factors numerous times throughout the movie, especially
when he unwillingly agreed to a boxing match with Denham. In spite of being subjected
to many blows Thackeray punches Denham once in the stomach, which brings the fight
to an end. At this point Denham realizes that Thackeray could have injured him pretty
good, but instead Thackeray chose to use an alternative route and show that positive
behavior can be equally rewarding in a situation like this, without violent means to stop a
fight. Mr. Thackerays actions were relatively passive but proved a point amongst his
students that violence is not the answer as seen towards the end of the film.
Challenge the Process

Many of the students depicted in the movie To Sir with Love appeared to have
challenging home lives and less than normal family structures. It appears they never had
any positive role models or a nurturing environment that provided guidance from a very
young age. The students in turn relied on their peers to help them cope with the changes
of having a new teacher, with different set of rules and guidelines. The students were
being continuously challenged to change their views and opinions to help become model
citizens. Since peer groups play a vital part in human development and transformation of
relationships to satisfy social needs. However, the students in the film seem to rely
heavily on each other to form their own identities. This showed the viewers that they
have not reached a level of cognitive development.
Furthermore, Cognitive development goes hand in hand with social development. The
social development helps adolescents to exert their influences in various ways and times.
It is also during this process, peer pressure is heavily influencing their decision-making
skills. This was clearly evident many times in the movie as well by the students. For
example when the class refused to deliver a wreath to Seales mothers funeral based
solely upon Denhams objection. As Seal being the only African American student, the
group struggled with racial issues and Seal was the minority. Here we see Thackeray step
up once again and teaches Denham right from wrong, he scolded Denham for his biased
decision, he gained disapproval from the whole class with the exception of Pamela Dare.
Moreover, the students lacked moral values, as they never had seen good role models and
didnt receive any guidance from their parents to display proper behavior like instruction
of moral reasoning, modeling good judgment, reinforcement and punishment. In the
movie this example is highlighted in a scene when Pamelas mother asked Mr. Thackeray
to have a conversation with her daughter about her inappropriate behavior. Pamela
responded in a negative way and accused her mother of not caring and being selfish. She
told Mr. Thackeray that when she came home she would find her mother with other men
and thats why her actions should be excused. We see Mr. Thackeray listening carefully
and telling Pamela that she should give her mother another chance Everyone deserves a
second Chance (To Sir with Love 1967). Because Thackeray never gave up on his
students, they reached a level of physical development as they transformed from
childhood into young adulthood and became model citizens. Examples of their
transformation was seen when they started using proper form of address both towards
their-self and others. The students also started caring about their appearance and how
they interact with others, which boosted their self-confidence.
Enable Others to Act

Encourage the Heart
Leaders recognize contributions; they celebrate accomplishments, these happen
throughout the film as Thackeray helped his students succeed from the time he started in
the classroom through the eventual transformation at the end. From his help the students
became more aware, appreciative and in turn became adults in society. Several instances
in the movie showed monumental changes of how eventually Thackeray recognized his
students contributions and even celebrated them as they celebrated him. Throughout the
movie we see plenty of examples of Thackeray encouraging the heart, whether it be
through the smallest contribution to the biggest change, it all helped in the end.
Thackeray teaches his students about life, survival training, cooking, and history.
Through this explained values and helped them understand fundamentals of learning. He
encouraged they could be anything they wanted to be. He showed them of how adults
should act; whether it is through announcing the girls in the class be called miss or how
Potter should have handled the situation like an adult. He showed them to portray
themselves better; image, hairstyle and clothing. Made Denim feel good about him-self
after sparring with him and acknowledging that he is good at boxing and even offering a
tutoring job to help younger students. Through all these things helped transform his
students into decent people in society and made them realize their mistakes and look
forward towards life. He acknowledges his students now, and they celebrate him as well.
He reflects on the time they spent together and is genuine and thanks them all as they
thank him.