The Emperor's Club

Jaicee Ulmer

The Emperor’s Club

1. The quote Mr. Hundert uses is correct in every way. Sedgewick is a perfect example of showing that “stupid lasts forever.” Even with a marvelous teacher giving him countless chances and opportunities to better himself Sedgewick still lacks the ability to have ethical values in his life. Mr. Hundert tried teaching him to have a life full of meaning and principles and even as an adult Sedgewick still was “stupid.”

2. He has never come across a student like Sedgewick Bell so he is unsure how to handle him. He notices that Bell starts having an influence on how the other students behave. Mr. Hundert tries to see well in this troubled student and show him hope and gives him chances nobody has given him. Mr. Hunderts experience with Sedgewick teaches his whole outlook on teaching.

3. The boys who attend St. Benedictus boarding school put all they have into their studies. When Sedgewick Bell enrolls to this school his behavior is unlike any of the boys had ever witness before. Sedgewick’s rebellious nature quickly makes him the interest of the class. All the attention goes to him because he is not afraid to talk back to the well-respected teacher Hunderts. Soon after all the kids see this new attitude and outlook on school, they begin to follow his lead. The students begin to get hypnotized by his behavior and become more interested in learning about the way he lives life rather than what they are learning about in class. Soon after Sedgewick arrives the classmates begin to become mouthier and even skip class with Sedgewick, distracting them of all their previous principles.

4. Mr. Hundert see’s major potential in Sedgewick and pushes him to start caring more about his studies. Once Sedgewick starts trying in class he improves a greatly but did not make the top three to go onto to the Mr. Julius Caesar Contest. Once Mr. Hundert sees how close Sedgewick was to making top three he considers changing the score a few points higher to get him into the top three. By the look in his eyes it was obvious he knew what he was doing was not ethically right because the boy who originally was in third deserved it, but since he had faith in Sedgewick he gave him a chance to see if he would succeed. In the end he made the decision to bend the rules for Bell to make final three

5. When it was down to the final two, Mr. Hundert notices that Sedgewick was cheating. He bends down to tell the head of the school what he had discovered but because of Sedgewicks dad is an important political figure he tells Mr. Hundert to let it slide. Although he knows that what was happening was wrong he quickly asks a question that only the other contester would know. Since Mr. Hundert was told not to call Sedgewick out in front of a huge crowd he decided to do the only thing that would ensure Sedgewick of not winning. Afterwards he confronts Sedgewick, and Sedgewick knows that he did not get confronted earlier because of his father. When asked why he cheated, Sedgewick said “why not” proving he felt like he did nothing wrong.

6. Mr. Hundert decides to host the Julius Caesar contest again because he wanted to prove himself wrong and see that there is hope for Sedgewick and also he had some guilt that he needed to bring up. The decision to bend the rules for the boy who ended up cheating was simply not fair for the Martin Blide who rightfully earned the third spot to be a contestant. Mr. Hundert felt the need to apologize and let him know exactly what he had done. He accomplished one of the two things he set out there to do.  He realized he was never wrong about Sedgewick and that the quote “stupid lasts forever” still stands to be true. On the positive side he finally gets the weight off his shoulder as he tells Martin the truth about so many years ago.

7. The question in the film is whether it is better to live a good principled life or a successful at any cost type of life. The film shows the outcome of two men choosing opposite life styles. To me this movie was clear to show that being true to oneself and others, having principles and values are the only way to truly be successful. The other life style chose by Sedgewick is only temporary success. Once Sedgewick tells Mr. Hundert that life is not about having principles, and that it is about manipulating and faking until you get to the top, Sedgewicks son comes out with a disappointed look on his face knowing that his dads thought on life is not the right.

8. After the rematch of Julius Caesar, Mr. Hundert realizes that he is not ready to stop teaching. The students that grew up from twenty five years ago showed him what he taught them really mattered in their life. He realized that being a teacher he held the power to potentially change a character of a boy that would change the destiny of the man they will become. He realizes bending the rules for Sedgewick did nothing for him or his destiny, but he sees in all the other boys’ lives that he had not failed them and he was a great influence on how they ended up. Martin Blide even enrolled his son to St. Benedicts and was taught by Mr. Hundert, which made him very happy and honored.

9.  Mr. Hundert taught in the way of lecturing the whole class period every class period. He didn’t use the over-head or have class projects, the students had to adjust to learning to the way he taught.

10. Learning what Mr. Hundert taught them helped the men to see what it takes for someone to succeed. It gave them a role model to look after and strive to be like. The Julius Caesar contest pushed them to study and have good straight forward principle. Mr. Hundert changed the boys’ characters so as the boys grew to men they grew up successfully

Education Inspiration.

To me school work has always come second to sports. I tried my hardest on the court and not in the class room. I would do enough to pass with a decent grade but not put all I could into school. I did not see what was wrong with that at all; I'd pass the classes, but focus on the thing I loved most, basketball! That was until Ken Vermillion entered my life. I was in seventh when my dad told me about a team that would go to tournaments throughout the summer and the coach would like me to be a part of the team. I was thrilled! I went to the first tournament not knowing anything about this coach. After the first tournament i was hooked. I stayed on the thunder team until I graduated and throughout those years i bonded with the team and Ken. When i first met Ken he was very intimidating, stubborn, and sarcastic, but as the summers went by I knew he was honestly had a soft heart that only our team could see. Ken changed my whole mind set on school. Although he was a basketball coach, he taught life lessons along with basketball. He would constantly tell me the importance of school work. He would ask me what I dreamed of in the near future and i would answer "playing college basketball." Ken calls me every now and then and checks up on my grades and tells me how proud he is of me which keeps me motivated. He said "Well, Jaic you’re living the dream, playing college ball. All i care about is your in college, basketball or no basketball, I couldn’t be more proud of you."  He is a man that is passionate about what he teaches and he cares for every girl that he coaches. He wants them to be successful beyond basketball. He changed my whole outlook on school work and life.

Paulo Friere's (BCE)

1. Paulo Freire's defines the concept of "narration sickness" as the way teachers teaches in ways that do not relate to reality. The student only memorize what the teacher is saying and regurgitates the formula or definition as a answer and does not actually put it into long term learning. He explains it as students will answer a question such as 3 times 2 as 6 without actually thinking of what 3 times to 2 is. The teachers teach and the students are taught to memorize.

2. When taking an Act test most students just look over the material and memorize so when taking the actual test all they do is fill in the bubble instead of actually using critical thinking. They are similar in the ways that both of these involve memorizing formulas or terms and spitting them back out rather than realizing the true significance of the question and answer.

3. I do not like classes involving math what so ever. I always have difficulties in the mathematics area. When I was a sophomore in high school I was in geometry. Mr. Enebo was the teacher of my geometry class. He was a really nice, intelligent, man but in my opinion not the best teacher for a student like me. He is a teacher who teaches in one dimension. When students would ask questions he would repeat what he had already said previously as if they would understand it the second time he said it. Sometimes that worked but most of the time no matter how many times he would say the same thing the students still would not understand.

That is where I think his biggest downfall in teaching is. He is so smart that he would expect that it makes sense to all. When the students didn’t understand it the way he does, he had no idea how to get through so they would. Relating his ways of teaching to the Paulo Friere’s Banking Concept of Education is when it states the teacher chooses the program content and the students, who were not consulted, adapt to it. There was no other option because Mr. Enebo had no other way of communicating the information to us besides the way he understands it.

4. Ever since I can remember I have been in love with the game of basketball. I always dreamed to play college basketball. When I was in seventh grade my dad told me a coach was interested in me being a part of his traveling team. Ken Vermillion coached the Thunder, a team of girl basketball players that would travel during the summer to tournament all around. I stayed with this team until my senior year. They became my second family. He coaches basketball in ways I have never heard of. He makes sure his players understand why he is teaching us what he is teaching us and relates it to real life.

 I look up to Ken because he cares for each one of his players not only on the court but off. He pushed me outside my comfortable limits which made me a better player. He checks up on my grades and tells me how proud he is of me when I am doing something right but he also tells me when I am doing something wrong even now when I don’t play for him anymore. Now that I am in college I achieved my goal to being able to play basketball at this level and I know I couldn’t have done it without his coaching. He believes in everything he says and everyone he is teaching.

5. The Athenians embrace the concept of problem-posing education. They believe that everyone should be seeking for more knowledge. In this case not only should the students want to learn more but the teachers should be open to gaining more knowledge as well. A lot of courses at USF embrace this concept as well. I am in communications which is a course taught by Professor Nassif. He lets his students give examples of situations in their life that go along with what he is teaching so that he can learn more about the ways to communicate as well as teach us.  I think all the courses I am in right now use the problem-posing education to some degree.