As most of you know, I am involved in getting my Ed.D. As part of the third class on Multiple Intelligences, we were assigned to view and review 3 movies. Please keep in mind as you read this, that it is not intended to be as much a review of the movie as it is to tell how the movie incorporated MI. As such, this movie and critique will serve especially to inspire teachers in the classroom.


Wes Craven always seems to play with the heart. Such is true in this delightful movie Music of the Heart staring Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett and Gloria Estefan. Taking place in Harlem, the movie is about Roberta Guaspari (Streep), a divorced mother of two with a fondness for teaching violin, who approaches an inter city school about teaching violin classes in school.

While the principal is cautious about Guaspari’s credentials, an impromptu recital by her two children changes the principal’s mind. Roberta begins selecting students and begins instruction. Her whole argument for the class was based on prior experience that music helps children’s self esteem and gives them skills that may be used in other areas of endeavor. Long story short- music adds value to a child’s life.

Most of the teachers, except Isabel Vasquez (played by Estefan), believe the program is a waste and resent Roberta’s intrusion into their lives. Even one of the parents takes her child out of the class viewing Guaspari as a “white woman coming to rescue us.”

But Roberta deals honestly and frankly with the faculty, parents and especially with the kids. In the end, Roberta wins them all over when the students she has taught go on to excel academically. The program continues for some 10 years until the school board cuts budgets endangering the music program. One of Roberta’s friends who is married to someone with music connections comes up with the idea of doing a concert to raise the funds to continue the program.

Roberta is intense about the performance until she finds out that the location for the concert is no longer available. Enter Roberta’s friend again who saves the day by arranging for the concert to take place in Carnegie Hall! The kids work hard, former students come back to lend a hand, Itzhak Perlman becomes involved and invites a few of his friends, and the night of the show—well suffice it to say this reviewer was crying like a baby.

As one looks at the instructional style used in Roberta’s classroom, there are a number of Gardner’s (2004) seven human intelligences that are utilized.

Roberta took command of the class and quickly gained the student’s respect and improved their behavior through the use of language. She was tough-tongued and strict. But the students responded to that. She delivered instruction to them by teaching them unique and specific vocabulary involved with both the music and the instrument. Her usage of such even caused some controversy as one parent complained about her toughness. “You’re going to make your parents sick,” was one of her favored phrases when the students did poorly. Interestingly enough, when Roberta attempted to change this pattern of language, the students reacted immediately and negatively. They wanted the old Roberta back.

The instructor also made limited use of spatial representation. Foot placement became equated with strength saying, “if you place your feet correctly, you become strong and no one can move you.” This, of course, is just good posture for playing the violin, but there was a deeper lesson!

Musical thinking becomes self evident with this movie. Teaching children the value of music, of discipline, of accomplishment and creativity—all of these added to the intrinsic value of the students both in their own estimations and that of those around them. This is evidenced when Carlos finally takes the violin case from his sister in front of his gang of friends now unafraid to be thought differently of by his peers.

An understanding of other individuals is found throughout the movie. Roberta breaks up an argument in class and tells one of the students “that kind of language isn’t allowed in this class.” She demands them respect each other and themselves. She models the kindness of dealing with a student with disabilities when she realizes that one little girl has bad legs and should play seated. She also explains how that Perlman also has leg problems.

Perhaps the most powerful example of this is when the little boy is killed in the drive-by shooting and she goes to the Hispanic home to speak with the student who is upset because of their fight. He had told him to drop dead. The teacher also uses the last of the human intelligences, understanding ourselves, when she allows him to cry in her arms.

Another example of the later is how she deals with the “dead head” at the very beginning. He is down on this idea thinking a violin is for sissies. He becomes, in the end, a prized student who has excelled academically and learned much about himself in the process. The teacher also takes time to work with individual students, offering lessons, encouragement, speaking to parents, and having them dig inwardly.

This is one of the best examples of cinema with a message out there. Teachers who are wanting to improve their teaching techniques or troubled schools desiring to improve the learning conditions for students would do well to watch this movie and absorb its lessons.










Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8