MONALISA SMILE

Do you believe that every smile means happy? Do you believe that smile can be deceiving? That was questions hovered in the movie Monalisa Smile directed by Mike Newell. The movie told us that not all smiles were sincere and it might mean different. The title itself, ‘Monalisa Smile’ was a symbol that reflected life of the students at Wellesley College. Despite their intelligence, joyful life as teenagers, laughs, they kept sadness through their smile especially Betty. Unlike other schoolmates, Betty was very conservative and strictly believed with college’s tradition; women should marry early. She thought she would be happy by continuing the college’s legacy after get married but, it was not happened. Betty suffered with the arranged marriage because she did gain husband’s love and that turned her to be a troublesome student at school.

All problems began because of tradition. When this happened, the presence of Ms. Winston became the spark of change. Lived in the 1950’s it was a challenge for teachers to educate students about the need of education as society perceived women as housewives and domestic workers. For the reason that, this movie tried to tell us the courage of a teacher to transform the perspective of the students by exposing them to human rights, education and importantly tried to instill in them that everyone can change. As a future teacher, I found this movie motivating as it displayed the character of teacher that world needs. Teacher should be an agent of change. Students’ perceptions influenced their decision making in life and teacher played significant role to direct them to a correct path. I liked the scene where Ms. Winston showed slides about women’s exploitation in the advertisement. It was really an open-eye to the students; I believe Betty too. Sometimes a usual advice could not be as efficient as pictures in reality. Yes, teacher should be creative to send the message to the students.

Furthermore, I admired the attitude that Ms. Winston had towards her students. She was not prejudice and treated all of them equally including the annoying Betty. She was very close to them all and kept on encouraging her students to success in academic. Ms. Winston supported Katherine to pursue study at university and she did that on her own to make Katherine achieved her dream. She stood still despite the horrific treatment she got from the school’s administration. What a wonderful teacher she had been! Again, this is a character of teacher everyone should has; AGENT OF CHANGE!