blog 8:Reflections on "Front of the Class"

I watched the movie <Front of the Class> two weeks ago. It is a 2008 American drama film based on the book by Brad Cohen, Front of the Class: How Tourette syndromeMade Me the Teacher I Never Had, co-authored by Lisa Wysocky.Brad Cohen's story starts as a young boy who had Tourette syndrome.With his mother's help and the support of his school principal, Brad eventually becomes an award-winning teacher.Although my tears fell down so many times when watching it, the movie actually conveyed a quite positive attitude. It makes me believe in love and hope.  

My tears first fell down when Brad’s father finally believed that the reason why Bradalways had frequent and loud vocal tics and barking is that he had Tourette syndrome but notthat he is naughty. At first, almost everyone including his father considered Brad as an extremely naughty boy. His father treated him very rude and indifferent, or in Brad’s words—he lost temper because he thought my behaviour is insufferable, I used up his patience. Brad and his father’s relationship was not good even what Brad grew up, because Brad thought his father didn't believe that he can fulfil his dream of becoming a teacher. However, we can see that his father continuallyhelped himwhen he was in need. That wasthe true meaning of a family. Although sometimes a certain family member may look like that he or she do not love you any more, the truth is that no matter what happens, love among family members can never be changed.

The movie also teaches me never lose hope. Although Brad had been examined by lots of doctors, none of them could make the right diagnosis, leaving himmisunderstood by people around him for a long time. Fortunately, his mother believed that he didn't make those strange sounds deliberately. After all the doctors gave up, it was his mother whofound the real cause for his abnormal behaviour by reading books about mental disorder on her own.There was no cure for Tourette syndrome, both Brad and his mother knew that, but they never give up living life to it’s fullest. Life is always full of obstacles, especially for people like Brad. His way to dream was always difficult. Almost all the schools rejected him, regardless of his outstanding academic and internship performance. Nevertheless, he still continued to find a school that was willing to accept him as a teacher. Nearly all of us have encountereda time when we find however hard we work, things still cannot be better.What should we do at those moments? After watching the movie, my answer is “keep on working”. 

The action“keep on moving”is not easy to follow; it requires a person to be optimistic. We should believe in lives, believe in our dreams, and most importantly, we should believe in ourselves. Therefore self-confidence is probably another factor that makes a person stick on his or her goal.Just like Brad and his mother, they have strong willing that life can be better in the future, so they never stopped making efforts to fight against their destiny and they finally succeeded.Hence, we should never give up hope just as what a poem says:

If by life you were deceived,

Don't be dismal, don't be wild!

In the day of grief, be mild

Merry days will come, believe.

Heart is living in tomorrow;

Present is dejected here;

In a moment, passes sorrow;

That which passes will be dear

The movie is quite good and it can motivate audience to pursuit their dreams, so I sincerely recommend it to all of youJ