REVIEW: THE WHITE RIBBON
For all my best intentions, I was never meant to be a schoolteacher. I had many a meltdown and breakdown over just trying to teach my first graders. I hated disciplining them (as I always hated being disciplined in school) and tried pacifying them with screens. When I would scream at them, I felt the ultimate embarrassment of giving in to the base desire of screaming as punishment. Safe to say after I walked out of the classroom while a superior watched them to my car and subsequently my home, I was soon to quit being a teacher. Screaming and anger are not the building blocks to the growth and success of healthy children. So why do the superiors in The White Ribbon think their children won’t grow up to be as selfish, insulting and brutal as them? When you’re taught you’ll get hit when you deviate slightly, why are we surprised when Sigi gets thrown into the water for being slightly annoying? Children are sponges, and the best imitators there are. This is the generation Haneke is i...