This is also the approach of Eminem, who acknowledges in his lyrics that he's a white man playing in a black man's field. The genius of Rabbit is to admit his own weaknesses.
When Rabbit gets into fights with black rivals, and he does, they are motivated not by racism but by more wholesome feelings, like sexual jealousy and professional envy. He lives on the black side of the road, where he has found acceptance and friendship from a posse of homies, and especially from Future ( Mekhi Phifer), who emcees the contests at the Shelter. It is a faithful reflection of his myth, however, beginning with the title, which refers to the road which separates Detroit from its white suburbs. Whether "8 Mile" is close to Eminem's own autobiographical truths, I do not know.
Eminem insists on Rabbit's proletarian roots, on his slattern mother, on his lonely progress as a white boy in a black world. Like Prince's "Purple Rain," it is the real thing. It stands aside from Britney Spears and the Spice Girls and the other hit machines who have unwisely tried to transfer musical ability into acting careers.
We are hardly started in "8 Mile," and already we see that this movie stands aside from routine debut films by pop stars. The seconds creep by in total silence, until Rabbit flees the stage and the Shelter. Then he goes onstage, where he has 45 seconds to out-rap his competitor in a showdown. In this world, he is known as "Rabbit." He rehearses in a mirror in the men's room, fiercely scowling at his own reflection and practicing those hand gestures all the rappers use, their outboard fingers pointed down from jerking arms as they jab spastically like Joe Cocker. He is about to go onstage at the Shelter, a rap club that looks uncannily like a deserted building, and engage in the hip-hop version of a poetry slam. We see him, early in "8 Mile," about to do the only thing he does well and takes joy in doing. Jimmy carries his clothes around in a garbage bag. His girlfriend has gotten pregnant and broken up with him, and although he did the right thing by her-he gave her his old car-he now faces the prospect of moving back into his mother's trailer home, with her boyfriend who hates him. (Eminem) skulks through a life that has been so terribly unkind to him. It shows how we can act?both as parents and as members of society?to improve children’s lives and promote their happiness and learning.Pale, depressed, Jimmy Smith Jr.
When children are in charge of their own education, they learn better?and at lower cost than the traditional model of coercive schooling.Ī brave, counterintuitive proposal for freeing our children from the shackles of the curiosity-killing institution we call school, Free to Learn suggests that it’s time to stop asking what’s wrong with our children, and start asking what’s wrong with the system. And these instincts still operate remarkably well today, as studies at alternative, democratically administered schools show. This capacity to learn through play evolved long ago, in hunter-gatherer bands where children acquired the skills of the culture through their own initiatives. Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, Gray demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient. To foster children who will thrive in today’s constantly changing world, we must entrust them to steer their own learning and development. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.
Children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that our children, if free to pursue their own interests through play, will not only learn all they need to know, but will do so with energy and passion.
The result: anxious, unfocused children who see schooling?and life?as a series of hoops to struggle through. Even outside of school children today seldom play and explore without adult supervision, and are afforded few opportunities to control their own lives. We call this imprisonment schooling, yet wonder why kids become bored and misbehave. Our children spend their days being passively instructed, and made to sit still and take tests?often against their will.