Emperor's Club Reflection

“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.” –Aristophanes All of the things that are listed above come with a solution because they can be changed in a positive way or can be fixed. The dictionary definition of stupid is foolish or senseless. Another is tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes. Ignorant and stupid should not be confused as being similar. Unlike ignorance, which can be educated, stupidity is cynical foolishness. A stupid person will take the same opportunity to learn by deliberately refusing to discipline themselves to appreciate and embrace the better qualities of life. They never choose to change and that is why stupid lasts forever.

Mr. Hundert is so shaken by the challenge of Sedgewick Bell because he has never had a student so disrespectful or one who doesn’t engage himself in the attempt to gain knowledge. He is an experienced and exceptional teacher because he instills moral character on his students. These students have always been well behaved so he easily just continues to guide them in the right direction. His trouble is that he always has order in his classroom and Sedgewick breaks this by speaking out against him being the authority. Mr. Hundert is altered by this instance because he seems himself in Sedgewick and can relate to him with the idea of a father figure.

Sedgewick Bell lures the other students to rebel and break school rules that they would have previously obeyed. The boys would hover because they felt his influence to be hypnotic. He would put them in a so-called trance, which would make them utterly blind to any deficiencies in his character. The boys were awestruck and Sedgewick taught them fun and the boys found him to be cool. He even affects Mr. Hundert, for example, during the boys’ game of baseball.

The ethical dilemma that Mr. Hundert faces involves who should be given the third spot in the Mr. Caesar competition. Bell misses it by one point after Hundert grades his paper the first time. Martin Blythe is in third by one point. Hundert rereads Bell’s paper and gives him a higher grade that puts him in the top three. Hundert makes the decision because he doesn’t want to fail Bell by letting him down. He has pushed him this far and doesn’t want him to fail because then he will just give up. He believes that Bell has shown improvement and has “come out of darkness into the light” which makes him believe that he is in the right by putting Bell into the Mr. Caesar competition.

At the contest, Mr. Hundert is faced with another dilemma. Sedgewick is cheating and Hundert tells the Headmaster who then just shakes it off like nothing is wrong. Hundert changes the question on him to one he knows that Bell won’t know. In referring back to the time when Hundert was on lights out duty, he remembers that Deepak was reading about Hamilcar Barca who he told was not part of the reading list, so that becomes the final question resulting in Deepak rightfully winning the Mr. Caesar competition. When Mr. Hundert confronts Sedgewick about his behavior in which Sedgewick questions why he didn’t call him out. Sedgewick responds to Mr. Hundert telling him that he knew the information and his questioning of the idea of cheating by saying, “Why not cheat?”

Hundert chooses to come back and host the contest because he wants to see if his decisions he made were the right thing to do. He had come there in the hope that he had been wrong about Sedgewick Bell or that he had been right to believe in him all of those years ago. His hope is squashed because Sedgewick hasn’t changed one bit. Hundert believes that he has failed Sedgewick. However, he realizes that the worth of a life is not determined by a single failure, or a solitary success. His hope is renewed because he realized that he had learned from his students. He learned no matter how much we stumble that it is a teacher’s burden always to hope that with learning, a boy’s character might be changed thus changing the destiny of a man. Martin Blythe is the student he moved down to ensure Sedgewick’s place in the Julius Caesar competition and he feels bad about it, but Martin revealed that he did give his due through his recommendation letter.

“All of us, at some point, are forced to look at ourselves in the mirror and see who we really are. When that day comes for you, Sedgewick, you will be confronted with a life lived without virtue, without principle, and for that I pity you.” When Sedgewick responds with “If it’s lying and if it’s cheating, then so be it”, his son Robbie opens the bathroom stall and walks away because he has heard the whole conversation. Sedgewick is forced to realize that he has revealed his way to success right in front of his son when he wants to be a positive influence. This situation partially resolves the tension in the movie because Mr. Hundert finally has the last word. Sedgewick is faced to live a life without principle and is faced with having to explain the situation to his son. This reveals that ultimately Sedgewick hasn’t changed one bit. Sedgewick realizes that he is now the same as his father and he never wanted to grow up like him. His son now knows his dad’s true character.

Mr. Hundert returns to teaching because he learned that it is a teacher’s burden always to hope that with learning, a boy’s character might be changed. He wants to change the destiny of man and makes sure that our future generations have upstanding characters. When Mr. Hundert returns the surprise that is there for him is that Martin Blythe’s son is in his class and his name is Martin Blythe III. By this action, Martin is finally forgiving Mr. Hundert after all of these years.

Mr. Hundert is the true essence of a problem-posing teacher from the Banking Concept of Education. He uses dialogue and communication throughout his lectures and keeps the class involved. The students finished his sentences of his lectures. The students answered questions and recited answers as a way to maintain engaged during the class. The students participated in a group discussion and weren’t just acting as containers to be filled.

By studying the classics, Mr. Hundert help these students become better versions of themselves by teaching them moral principles that the Emperor’s themselves possessed. These men were successful and left their mark by their outstanding morals and character. Mr. Hundert contributed in that manner by giving the boys the necessary guidance to become better people. He only allowed respectful manners in his classroom and he was a strong believer of the rules. He helped keep the boys in line. As adults, he helped them contribute back to the world through their studies and being upstanding moral people.