Movie response #1

1.         There are many different factors that affect each student. For Luisa there is a time constraint. She does not have a lot of money and therefore works forty hours a week at Long John Silver’s. Thus leaving her with little time to concentrate on her academics. However, Cedra does not seem to have any major problems that might affect her studies. Like Luisa, Travis is short on money and therefore has to put his future plans, college, on hold. Also Travis has a lot of responsibility at home, which takes up a lot of his time and concern. Finally Kep is more similar to Cedra. He continues on to college, CalTech. For Luisa and Travis technology did not solve any of their money problems. Ideally they were studying it to eventually make a living out of it, but they cannot do that without having further schooling. On the other hand eventually technology may help Cedra and Kep make a living out of it.

As I watched the movie, the Tech High School in California seemed like a factory that created mindless workers. The students were not offered a lot of diversity when it came to other interests or activities other than technology (i.e. computers). Throughout the movie I felt that many of the students were being set up for failure due to the fact that now-a-days it is just a pre-requisite to know how to use computers. By having them going to school that is grounded in the idea that technology (computers) is the key to getting a job is setting them up for failure. Yes, computer skills are a basic skill for jobs, but there is a lot more that employers look for other than computer skills. One good example would be social skills, which is very important for having a job.