Critique of a teacher movie

Title: Taare Zameen Par (2007) Run Time: 2 hours 45 minutes Casts: Darsheel Safary, Aamir Khan, Tanay Chheda

This movie is about a special kid, Ishaan Awasthi (played by Darsheel) who has dyslexic, a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read. Ishaans teacher, Ram (played by Aammir Khan) had found out about Ishaan diablity. So, he tries to tell Ishaans family about his problem and helps Ishaan to overcome his disability. He teaches Ishaan with patience and tries to make Ishaan to read because he thinks Ishaan is a bright child. He also tries to make Ishaan to paint again because Ishaan has stopped his hobby, painting after he was sent to boarding school. Therefore, every teacher needs this value to overcome their student problem and also have to patience and respect when teaching the kids. The role of the traditional teachers shown in the movie is an eye opener to our society. Traditional method like teacher talks and students will sit and listen is unfavourable in the 21st century classroom. Therefore, modern teachers should try to make some innovations to their teaching practices. Firstly, catering for individual differences is an important aspect of teaching and learning. In the video, the teacher generally believes that all students have same ability in a class and teaching them all equal is ineffective teaching. Children are all unique learners. They need the teachers to bring it out. In the traditional class, the teachers was to decide what to draw and paint but in the modern class the teacher, Ram gave them a freedom to draw whatever they want. Ram also gave an honour to students work and thus enhances the childrens motivation. At one time in the movie, when the teacher was asking questions regarding the names of some scientists, this contradicts with cognitive aspects of teaching. For example, this class was of 9 and 10-years old students and the concepts which he was asking were very abstract. According Piaget, at this age children cannot understand abstract thinking because they have lower levels of awareness about

Critique of a teacher movie

themselves as language learners (Pinter, 2006). So, every teacher needs to know his students level of proficiency so he could come up more suitable lessons and activities. Anyhow this movie is a very interesting and it is amazing how a person related to a film industry (Aamir Khan) may bring more changes in understanding and practices of teaching than the real teachers or educators. The movie I think will raise awareness of the issue of dyslexia and prompted more open discussions among parents, teachers and schools. It is a good contribution towards teachers and education. I want recommend especially the student-teachers to watch this movie and enjoy it. Hopefully you will gain insightful ideas and valuable values from this movie.

Pinter, A. (2006). Teaching Young Language Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.