Geeks + Gamers › Forums › Entertainment › Movies › The Principal – 1987 – An example of society going sideways
This is a GREAT movie. I have watched it many times.
While watching it today it occurred to me that the movie displayed how bad inner-city schools were ALMOST 40 YEARS AGO.
In 1987 the situation was already so bad movies were being made about how it needed to be solved then as it was horrific. There was also “Lean on Me” in 1989 with Morgan Freeman. Another AWESOME movie. But while The Principal was fiction, Lean on Me was not. It was about a real man “Joe Clark” who cleaned up a school.
Understand what that means. By 1989 they could find a completed story about a man cleaning up a dysfunctional school and take the time to make a movie about it.
I have asserted that rap from the 80’s and 90’s was the black inner-city reaching out for help. They were telling everyone how awful it was for them. I personally surmise this is from the LBJ policies. And after the 80s and 90s all those folks got was more of those policies and now their communities are all by destroyed and they in large part depend on the tax payer to survive. This is not because there is anything wrong with those folks, it’s because they were intentionally fooled into becoming dependent.
All the societal rot you see today did not just pop up in the last decade. It’s been working itself to this point for a solid 50 yrs if not longer.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097722/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093780/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520principa
I remember Stand and Deliver, which was totally different. Lots of teachers on one side of my family. Not sure if I recall this one, The Principal, but I do remember one teacher movie that was disturbing.
The big change was the breakdown of the family. When that become the norm, there was nothing teachers could do to control the environment. It’s basically a kennel now. Rhonda “Randi” Weingarten is an example of how it just keeps getting worse.
An old man who is a friend of mine who has to be like about 80 told me that he thought the end of education was when they removed the paddle. He was used to that tough love approach. That type of corporal education is something I never got and was my perception of taking it serious. You can see why China, Russia and other countries scoff. There’s really no competition in that realm.
I am old enough to have been paddled in grade school. I recall a student sticking his tongue out at the principal of that same school and he got slapped in the face (deservedly so). Were those things bad? No, when properly administered they are VERY good.
Somehow that is now considered abuse but lopping off your no-no parts is considered compassion.
The big change was the breakdown of the family.
It started before that. I am certain , like you, that this one thing harmed the school environment greatly though. But you must ask yourself what caused the family to breakdown? I would argue that started with the movement that Margaret Sanger and the feminists put into motion where they ended up detaching sex from reproduction. That was the first stab at the value of life. Then behind that here comes LBJ and incentivizing negative things through “compassion” by hooking the black communities into government dependence.
Folks need to understand that the destination we have arrived at we were not transported to. We walked a long path to get here. And if you don’t like the destination you need to turn around and look from where you came and understand many turns decided on the path got us here.
My prime example of this is Blair White. Blair is a good person in my summation. He has no fantasy in his head about actually being a woman and is against all the current insanity in that arena. Blair openly calls transgenderism a mental problem and has questioned openly if his gender issues were based on trauma from an abusive father. However, I would imagine Blair cheered on many turns on the path that lead us to his point of insanity. The point being, just because you might be against what is happening now does not mean you are free of responsibility helping cause it.
And yes I called Blair “he”. I respect Blair much, but I am not ceding reality to anyone due to feelings or some platitude of respect.
I’ve seen Lean on Me a few times – it’s a classic.
For me the moral of the story was one of temperance – yes, desperate times call for desperate measures but even with the best of intentions you can take things too far.
I loved this film back in the day.
Drop the stick, Rick.
Wuss.
My tuuuuurrrnnn!
Who do you think you are?…..He’s the principal man.