Monday, February 2, 2015
Mona Lisa Smile: Discussion (2&4)
Since Katherine Watson's teachings were labeled as unorthodox, it means that her teachings were different than what the school's rules and traditions were. An example of her "unorthodox" teachings would be when she taught the women about the history of modern art and Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflower painting becoming a paint-by-numbers activity. The scene where she takes the girls out to look at the art piece and "consider it" is also a part of her nontraditional teaching because she taught them things that weren't accepted by the school. When the word subversive comes to mind, I think of rebellion. In Mona Lisa smile, I don't think Katherine was trying to be rebellious. She just saw potential in the young women and hoped that they saw it too. Katherine Watson wasn't just a teacher to them, but a mentor and counselor and the board tried to take that away from her. So, Katherine Watson wasn't a subversive person, the school wanted to think that she was.
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I agree with you about Katherine not trying to be rebellious. Everyone tried to make it look like she was intentionally wrecking the school's systems, but she was really only trying to teach her students the things that really mattered to her.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Ms. Watson was unorthodox because she didn't teach everything from the book, she actually made her students do some critical thinking. She wanted them to form their own opinions instead of simply memorizing facts.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Katherine fought to be unorthodox, trying to get out of the sense of sameness and resort to Van Gogh's perspective. Also, I like how you inputted how she saw the potential in the students she was teaching. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI feel like Katherine's teaching methods are right on track. We should have more teachers who are willing to think outside the box.
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