Community: Icing the Cake of Hipocrisy

So after watching the movie, and reading chapters 8-10, I have come to the realization that, in my opinion, most of the stuff we read about and watch are just merely ideas. They are ideas that have been put into play, ideas that have proven to be true, but are they really realistic ideas?

As future teachers, our heads are full of thoughts about what kind of educators we want to be, how we want our classes to run; our own ideas as being the epitomy of the perfect teaching. I realize that in the course of our blogging so far, that I have been completely cynical, but I can't seem to help it. My personality revolves so much around not being able to fully trust in, or rely on people because all I have experienced in the past from community is dissapointment. We have watched 'Half Nelson' and we have discussed what had happened during the course of the movie; about how the movie relates to what we have been reading in the Block book. What I took from both is this idea of 'leadership'. Yes, there have been some great leaders in the past and the present-I'm sure there are more to come in the future- but are there really followers and leaders, or are we just one big group of leaders?

In the movie, I felt as though the teacher was the 'leader' but how could he have possibly been the leader when he, himself , was a follower of some-sort; the bad example. How are you going to sit there and tell your classroom full of students to be good people, to not do certain things that are tagged as bad by the government, when you are sitting at home doing those very "bad things" yourself?

I like to look at community as this big cake, and all of these "great ideas", all of this "leadership" as the icing. In the cake you have your community, hidden under all of the deception, negativity, and greed; these problems aren't just there, they are deeply rooted in the community. After the cake comes the icing; sugary happiness filled with positive ideas, and so-called 'leadership' covering up all of the problems as to make them seem as though they have never existed.

Talk is cheap, and I find that no matter how many inspirational movies you may watch, and as many books you read, they are all just the icing on top of a problem filled cake that is growing bigger and bigger as each day passes us by. It is nice to imagine the glass as being half-full. The sad reality is that it is really half-empty.