Zirchonion-PRECIOUS

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//Precious// was a very deep movie and certainly a tear-jerker. //Precious// explores the life a 16-year-old junior high student (the movies namesake) who, at the beginning of the movie, is pregnant with her second child. Her principal seems to be fed up with her situation and the fact that she is still there and tells her that until she has a conference with her mother, Precious cannot return to school. Unfortunately Precious' mother is physically and verbally abusive and not very concerned with her education nor with Precious at all, except for what Precious can do for her. Precious ends up dropping out of school and enrolling in an Alternative school where she finds a new family. Although the other students are older than Precious she better relates with them than kids at a regular school because they all come from different backgrounds and have different reasons for being there. Precious has her second child while in alternative school and all of her classmates are there for her as well as her teacher and grandmother. Her mother never shows up at the hospital. When she leaves the hospital to go home, her mother beats her again and Precious takes that as the final straw and leaves. Her teacher allows her to live there until she can find housing for her. From this point Precious goes on to do extremely well and get on her feet and even wins an award from the Mayor for exemplary excellence and improvement. However the movie takes a turn for the worse when Precious finds out that she is HIV positive. Through the whole movie Precious seems to take everything in stride, accepting her life for what it is, but at this point she breaks down. She cries as she tells her classroom and teacher and expresses that no one loves nor cares about her. The movie ends with Precious severing all ties with her mother and taking both of her children. All in all not exactly a happy ending, but better than her beginning.

This movie made me look at life completely different. It honestly made me realize that everybody has a story and you never know what somebody may be going through at home. //Precious// is certainly one of the saddest movies I have ever seen, however I say this because although this movie is not based on a true story, there is somebody somewhere going through her situation or something similar. This movie has an educational perspective because by the time she was 16 she was still almost completely illiterate, yet some how she had made it to 7th grade. Because since she was a quiet student and did not cause many problems, teachers passed her along. This should not be the case. It is a teachers duty to do whatever possible to see their student succeed. The least they were to do was teach her to read. It is sad that everyone in Precious' life had failed her terribly until she went to Alternative school.

I could use this movie in a classroom as a way to show students not to be so cruel and judgmental as kids (as well as adults) can certainly be. Precious was picked on because of her size, but she had probably been through more in her 16 years than her classmates would go through in their entire lives. It is important to learn at an early age that everyones life is not the same and everyone does not have the same advantages and opportunities. Why hurt someone when you can help them? That is something I want to emphasize to my students.