Urban Film Analysis: Coach Carter

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This film analysis will be based around the urban film, Coach Carter. This movie is based on a true story about Coach Ken Carter of the Richmond High School in California around a basketball team that gets a new head coach named Coach Carter who is played by Samuel L. Jackson (IMDB 2005). This team is given contracts that each member needs to agree to in order to play on the team. This contract includes an academic standard of a 2.3 grade point average, dress code on game day, and other necessities that enhance respect for the team. Throughout the movie the team struggles with respect for the coach, academic scores, violence, and basketball tournaments. This movie has a few dilemmas that I will be talking about in reference to “The Ethics of…show more content…
Is this just because Damien is his son? Is this fair to Damien? I understand that Coach Carter was purposefully sending his son to a critically acclaimed school so Damien’s options would be greater in the future for college, but to increase all of the contract requirements? Another questionable decision by Coach Carter is when team member arrives late to practice, that individual has to run an outrageous amount of suicides as well as complete a high number of push-ups. Would this be considered crime and punishment? Coach Carter is punishing his team for being late; would this teach them manners of arriving to a destination early? While this plan worked for Coach Carter and his team, Strike and Soltis seem to be at a cross roads with an agreement on whether punishment is a good way to react to bad behavior. One argument could be about how “it serves no educational purpose” (Strike & Soltis 2009, pg. 26). But on the other hand someone could argue that, “Education cannot go on without order and peace in a classroom of learners” (Strike & Soltis 2009, pg. 26). While there are…show more content…
When it came to Junior Battle, Coach Carter suspended him because his grades were slipping. Junior’s mother comes to make a special visit to Coach to tell him what was going on in Junior’s home life. This was a huge ethical dilemma because Coach was being told about Junior’s brother dying two years prior to that meeting. Coach tells his mother that Junior needs to stand up for himself. Coach allows Junior to talk to him that night and makes him promise to catch up on his classes, do 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 suicides, as well as give a sincere apology for not respecting the contract. When it came to Timo Cruz, he was automatically kicked out, no question asked. When Junior Battle was suspended, he had to apologize then he would be back on the team. Thinking about equal opportunity and democratic community, according to The Ethics of Teaching (2009), brings up the NEA Code of Ethics, “An educator shall not on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, national origin, marital status, political or religious beliefs, family, social or cultural background, or sexual orientation, unfairly: Exclude any student from participation in any program; deny benefits to any student; or grant any disadvantage to any student” (Strike & Soltis, pg. 55). This movie did a great job of going along with this code. There was never an individual rejected because of what they looked or where they came from. There was a quote form The Ethics of Teaching

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