From a teacher’s perspective, when addressing Mary’s needs, I would have given her more ways to show her math skills and when I am one hundred percent positive she is gifted, follow the school’s ESE program referral. I think the way the teacher called Mary out in front of the whole class in order to try to embarrass her with difficult questions was unprofessional and plain mean. I also don’t like how she went straight to the principal to put the Mary in a school for gifted children. The teacher definitely should have had an ESE committee meeting first. Once again, I do not agree with most of the teacher’s actions throughout the movie.
I believe the grandmother and uncle should have never gone to court to decide Mary’s future. The meeting with the teacher and uncle should have been called, and if the grandmother really wanted to be a part of Mary’s future, she should have been at the meeting too. Having a Mary’s guardian decided in court rather than talking through the pros and cons like adults could be detrimental for a child.
Not providing gifted students with the challenging work they need can lead to issues such as outburst, distracting other students, and learning to hate school. She came to the school feeling like an outcast with no friends her age, which made her not like school even more. Her boredom in class because of the lack of challenging work is understandable and she should have been given higher level work.
Three good points from this movie are: 1. Compromise can be a wonderful thing as Mary got to stay in elementary school as well as attend dual-enrollment level math courses to meet her capabilities. 2. Frank proved to be extremely thoughtful to want Mary to have a normal life and not live as an outcast. 3. Teachers need to learn how to identify the special educational needs of their students.
Three bad points from this movie are: 1. There was no reason to have Mary’s guardian decided in court. Her grandmother seems to be a very selfish woman. 2.The teacher was very unprofessional with the uncle. I don’t think an explanation is needed for that one. 3. When discovering Mary’s abilities, the teacher should have called an ESE meeting instead of having the principal recommend her to a school for gifted students.