Though public education in America is universally available, it's not always universally acceptable. Besides the students, teachers get the short end of the stick in the public education system. They are faced with challenges (from budget cuts and unfair pay scales to bureaucracy and social ills), and for teachers in low-income or troubled-area schools, those obstacles increase exponentially.
The short, Shelter From the Storm directed by John X. Carey, gives teachers and parents hope that all it takes to make a pivotal impact in a child's life is instilling a sense of self worth. Elementary school teacher Mrs. Reifler may or may not be an anomaly but her approach of providing her East L.A. students with a sense of safety and confidence should be the norm. The basis of her methodology lies in one question: "What kind of human being are you going to be?". It's with this foundation that she is able to build upon the tools they need to choose a good life over the despondency that they are bombarded with every day.
All I could say after watching this is that we need a Mrs. Reifler in every school across the globe.
UPDATE: The following note from the director's makes the video no longer available for embedding (even though it plays on his Vimeo page): *To protect the identities of the children in this video we can no longer let this film be public. Please do not re-post publicly.
Shelter from the Storm from John X. Carey on Vimeo.
