The Art of Being an Excellent Teacher and an Excellent Student - Whiplash 2014

On February 22, 2015, Whiplash (film) won 3 Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Supporting Actor for Simmons, and was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.

It's not just an award-winning film. It's an inspiring story that captures the relentless pursuit of Excellence for both a Student and a Teacher.

The controversial parts would be on what was the real contributor to Andrew's eventual success? What does it take to reach the Top? How much sacrifice is justifiable? When enough is enough? When do you call off your dream or ambition? How do you tell if you really have what it takes to be The One? What is success to you and its relevance to the people closest to your life?

This film by no means serve as the reference for you to copy in your pursuit of excellence in Teaching or Learning, but it does serve well as a secondary experience of others for you to determine for yourself how contradicting views and perceptions of superiors or peers could either push or damage a child's passion. To master this Sensitivity to decipher your child's emotions would help you determine what is the best way to push her to achieve her highest calling.

Then again, it depends on the child's motivation and determination to get somewhere, if anywhere at all. By this, I personally think it is fair to say that it is not wrong to have no great ambitions.

Below are compilation of some interesting quotes from the movie:
From the Extremely Demanding Instructor, Mr Terrence Fletcher:

"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job."

"I don't think people understood what it was I was doing at Shaffer. I wasn't there to conduct. Anybody can wave his arms and keep people in tempo. I was there to push people beyond what's expected of them. I believe that is... an absolute necessity. Otherwise, we're depriving the world of the next Louis Armstrong. The next Charlie Parker. I told you about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker, right?" 

"Parker's a young kid, pretty good on the sax. Gets up to play at a cutting session, and he ruined it. And Jones nearly decapitated him for it. And he's laughed off-stage. Cries himself to sleep that night, but the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices and he practices with one goal in mind, never to be laughed at again. And a year later, he goes back to the Reno and he steps up on that stage, and plays the best solo the world has ever heard. So imagine if Jones had just said: "Well, that's okay, Charlie. That was all right. Good job. "And then Charlie thinks to himself, "Well I did do a pretty good job." End of story. No Bird. That, to me, is an absolute tragedy. But that's just what the world wants now. People wonder why jazz is dying."

"I never really had a Charlie Parker. But I tried. I actually tried. And that's more than most people ever do."

And on the drummer Andrew's personal ambition and definition of success:

Uncle Frank: You got any friends, Andy?
Andrew: No.
Uncle Frank: Oh, why's that?
Andrew: I don't know, I just never really saw the use.
Uncle Frank: Well, who are you going to play with otherwise? Lennon and McCartney, they were school buddies, am I right?
Andrew: Charlie Parker didn't know anybody 'til Jo Jones threw a cymbal at his head.
Uncle Frank: So that's your idea of success, huh?
Andrew: I think being the greatest musician of the 20th century is anybody's idea of success.
Jim: Dying broke and drunk and full of heroin at the age of 34 is not exactly my idea of success.
Andrew: I'd rather die drunk, broke at 34 and have people at a dinner table talk about me than live to be rich and sober at 90 and nobody remembered who I was.
Uncle Frank: Ah, but your friends will remember you, that's the point...

There really is not a clear right or wrong in anybody's decision on what to do with his or her life ultimately. As long as there is no intentional harm caused provided the person is rational. Nonetheless there is but one scene in the movie I personally found hard to digest. Terrence the instructor completely ignored the fact that Andrew the student drummer almost lost his life in an accident rushing for his performance. Not only Terrence did not give a damn about it, he condemned Andrew without trying to understand what happened. A sophisticated teacher who at one point would be sobbing for the lost of his other talented student but another point would rag his student to the point of absolute worthlessness eventhough it was only a matter of a rushing tempo. 

Question: What if you intentionally cause harm to one's self-esteem in order to push him beyond his limits? Do leave your comment.

Sources:
1. Wiki - Whiplash 2014
2. Whiplash Famous Quotes from IMDB