Chalk illustrating Freire & Gatto's charges against Ed.

       In Chalk we constantly see the "boredom" that Gatto refers to in his essay. Many times the camera  caught the teachers daydreaming, like Coach Webb in the hallway, or even sleeping in their classrooms during lunch break, like when Mrs. Reddell walked into Mr. Lowrey's class while he was sleeping. These teachers weren't excited to be there and they felt bored causing them to think about other things. Freire talks about how the students never get a say in the modern education system. Chalk illustrates this on many occasions. In the beginning of the year Mr. Lowrey was very "matter-of-fact" like and set certain rules and didn't let his students speak up or do anything in the way that coud be best for them. Mr. Stroope does the same thing when he confronts two students about being "too smart" for his liking. He doesn't want them to know more about the subject he's teaching than he does. This scene also coincides with Gatto's idea that modern education expects conformity and all the students to know the same amoun of material and to be completely like one another. Mr. Lowrey, at the beginning of the year, shows us that he believes the students are truly just objects. He just throws information at them without knowing or caring if they're understanding it. This illustrates Friere's charge that says, "The teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects." Along with Gatto's idea of teachers being bored and not having a good ability to teach because of the low energy, in Chalk the Principle honestly doesn't care at all about the school and what goes on in it. When the assisstant principle, Mrs. Reddell, confronts him about some of the problems in the school, he goes on to talk about other things that don't relate to the issues at all. He talks about cowboys and his favorite movies instead.