“Spring of the Cattle Class” is a French drama film directed by Christophe Barati, starring Gerard Juno, Jean-Battiy Maurier, Francis Bellander, etc. The film mainly tells the story of a talented music teacher Mathieu who comes to the secondary school, faces the so-called poor students, Mathieu changes the story of the children and his own fate.
The story takes place in a boarding school in rural France in 1949, because the principal Hassan taught the students by violent means, leading the teachers to follow suit and punish the students in a disguised form. Over time, this group of “bad kids” came up with all kinds of strange ways to fight against the principal and teachers. Even the name of the school was described by them as “the bottom of the pond.”
The rivalry is supposed to last forever, but it is broken by the appearance of one man – Clement Matthew, a short bald man who is a music teacher. Because of his arrival, the whole school is slowly changing, everyone not only likes his music, but also is attracted by his personality charm, of course, except that serious and stuffy headmaster. In the end, the new superintendent was fired by the principal, but he had planted the seeds of kindness in the hearts of the students, which would last until the children grew up.
In the face of two different ways of education, how should we choose? Let’s compare the similarities and differences between the two:
Principal: One-word behaviorism is one of the main schools of modern psychology in the United States, and it can also be said that it is the first major force in Western psychology. The representative of it, John Watson, once said this: Give me a dozen healthy babies that I can raise as I please, and I promise to raise them into any particular type I choose – doctors, lawyers, artists, businessmen, leaders, even beggars and thieves, regardless of their talents, hobbies, inclinations, talents, and the occupation and race of their parents.
This is what kind of ideas, will produce what kind of action. Therefore, at the beginning of the film, it should be a warm and harmonious rescue education school for troubled youths, but under the management of the principal, it has become a inhuman prison, and the old staff under his control are even more committed to rigid and useless principles. The students’ naughty behavior is a challenge to these principles, and it is also a challenge to the principal, which also leads to the principal’s craziness and repression. In the end, even the students’ entertainment was banned.
Matthew: The philosophy of discovering the beauty of human nature, which emphasizes the integrity, independence and autonomy of students and pays attention to the cultivation of creativity, lays a good foundation for the establishment of democratic and free teacher-student relationship.
Although the film does not explain Matthew’s idea of human beauty, but from his contact with the students can be seen his inner kindness and selflessness, in Matthew’s eyes, this group of children are only temporarily a little problem, as long as through the appropriate method to guide and advise, you can certainly let them back on track. It is precisely because of Matthew’s tolerance and respect for the students that he really enters the heart of this group of troubled teenagers.
One of the most typical examples is that when the students made fun of Matthew’s bald head, he not only did not get angry, but corrected the students’ mistakes in intonation, pointing out the students’ mistakes in such a light-hearted and humorous way. For the children, this is also the first time that they were not punished for “making mistakes”, because of such respect and tolerance. Finally let this “cattle herding class” into a happy growth of the large collective.
The most typical example of what happens when these two ideas collide is when Matthew directs the students to sing, and the students all pound the table for a rhythm, and the sound soon fills the whole building. Although everyone was intoxicated, the principal was frightened by such a sound, for him, this may be another large-scale opposition to the “uprising”, so he always found a variety of reasons to prevent Matthew teacher and this group of bad children singing.
At the end of the film, the principal fired Matthew in the name of the fire, on the surface, on behalf of the principal achieved an absolute victory, and Matthew can only leave in disgrace, but this is not the case, from the performance of this group of children can be seen, this group of so-called bad children, after growing up can become a musician or even other excellent career, it is undeniable that this is a very big achievement. In my opinion, this is the best weapon to defeat the speech, but also represents the victory of Matthew’s education concept.
At the same time, we also need to admit that every way of education has its good side, as well as the shortcomings of the side, we can not arbitrarily conclude, can not deny the significance of its existence, perhaps the best way is a combination of the two. And the film “Spring of the cattle class” just reflects these two educational concepts, for the real educators, perhaps there will be a lot of inspiration, for students, help is huge. Here I hope that more people can see this excellent work, but also hope that the charm of the film can affect more people.
