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The Movie Higher Learning Essay Example

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The Movie Higher Learning Essay Example
Higher Learning; Gift and a Curse

Higher Learning is a book made into a film which carries deep social and cultural issues that has plagued America since the time of its establishment. In this book, the author John Singleton sheds light on the never ending issues of education, racist, sexual abuse; social class, gender, and sexual orientation are faced head on. As a collection of freshman college students from all different walks of life they all come as one at Columbus University having to clash with stereotypes and prejudice in a new atmosphere. For illustration in the book, a ordinary white teenager from Idaho has a culture shock at his new school joins a Nazi bunch of criminals because they are the first friends he made, which let him exaggerate the angry he felt against different races of people for violating his social norms. As an end result he shoots up the school and murders a number of people then himself. This movie shows us how only through tragedy can people learn lessons of life and come together as human beings. Education is stressed in this novel, arriving at Columbus University these freshmen had to learn to cope with the struggle of trying to financially support themselves throughout school and to survive the tough rigorous class work. A superstar black freshman track runner named Malik gets a surprise when he finds out he’s only on partial scholarship for track and it pressures him to nearly abandon his dreams of a college degree. Kristen is a white teenager from Orange County, California who deals with intragenerational social mobility, is a change in a social position occurring during a persons lifetime,(Blau and Duncan 1967) when her rich father becomes bankrupt and the lose every thing which leaves her with the only option to get a job. Grade inflation discussed in chapter 20 states that more students receive higher and higher grades for average work, this handicapped the freshman when they arrived in a different type of

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