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Individual Reflective Paper
A popular Spanish movie on Netflix in 2019 directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, The Platform tells a fictional story of prisoners in a prison with 333 levels underground. The prisoners share food on a platform that comes down from the top level, level 0, which means the higher the level they are on, the more food choices they have. However, prisoners are only allowed to eat in a minute, and will be punished if they keep food in their own rooms. Basically, when the platform reaches lower than level 100, there is barely any food left. To survive, prisoners will have to murder each other and eat their roommates’ flesh. The protagonist, Goreng, is ignorant of the cruelty in this prison when he first arrives, but soon he learns to survive by killing his roommates. Later, he becomes one of the few prisoners that try to persuade others to take only the amount of food they need to sustain life and share the food evenly on each level. Eventually, he reaches the bottom, level 333. The movie has an open end, leaving the audience with various interpretations.
Cover photo from India Times
Photo from IMDb
This movie vividly depicts the hierarchy in modern society. People who live in higher levels have access to more resources, whereas those who live in lower levels can only get what is left and even nothing. Meanwhile, people can only compete with those on the same level as moving to a higher level is nearly impossible. As Takacs (2002) emphasizes in the article that where we stand influences how we perceive the world, prisoners on different levels treat the food and their roommates differently. Those on higher levels usually take food for granted, but those on lower levels always struggle to survive and compete with others. Another example is in one of the three versions of the ending. In this version, Goreng protects a pudding from being eaten so that it can reach the top level when the platform goes back. Since no food has ever returned to the top, it can catch the cooks’ attention and maybe they will notice the suffering down there. Nonetheless, when the pudding returns, the cooks carefully examine the pudding and find a hair. They thus conclude that the prisoners refuse to eat it because of the hair. The message delivery fails because people have epistemological limits. Similarly, the way a teacher knows and judges a student is limited to the teacher’s own perspective, which can be easily biased and lead to unsatisfactory results. To avoid such results, as suggested by Takacs (2002), “cooperative argumentation” is needed. When people open their ears for those on other levels and listen to understand instead of to judge or triumph, the voices of the minorities can be heard.
Goreng. Photo from New York Times
Trimagasi. Photo from Guardian
To better realize social justice in the classroom, we have to understand what justice is. As Takacs (2002) puts, “justice is not what is ‘right,’ …, but rather justice is result of a compromise between all involved parties,” the movie also sheds light on this statement. Every month the prisoners will be transferred to another level with a new roommate. Ideally, if people are transferred from a lower level to a higher one, they would save some food for people beneath them because they know how difficult it is down there. But when they ascend, people just take the advantage and eat more. Apparently, what the prisoners do is contrary to what is right, which proves that justice can only be achieved when people make a compromise. In the movie, Goreng tries to persuade others to take only what they need, but the prisoners refuse to make a compromise because they see each other as competitors for limited food, while they are in fact on the same boat. In our education systems, students from diverse backgrounds are also on the same boat. Teachers are responsible for creating “an atmosphere of mutual respect,” where “students from majority and minority cultures can help teach each other” (Takacs, 2002). Owing to epistemological limits, students of majority cultures rarely see the value of minority cultures. Yet with minority cultures incorporated in the classroom, they tend to realize the fact that everyone is on the same boat, and thus compromises can be made to achieve social justice.
In my own teaching experience, I have worked with two students with special needs, one with cerebral palsy (A), and the other with autism (B). Student A had strong motivation in learning English, but her disabilities made her learn more slowly than her classmates, especially in speaking class. When I taught her one on one in her IEP remedial session, she asked me to provide oral training for an English proficiency test. I listened to her speaking and found that she could actually express herself well at a slow pace which may not be considered “fluent” in the test. She also shared that she was eager to join her classmates in PE class, as running and walking are blessings to her. She reminded me of how lucky I am to be able to speak fluently and walk freely. As for student B, she refused to learn because she believed she could not learn well. She rarely submitted homework on time. I spent a lot of time talking her into finishing a video project in class, and she turned it in on time. Even though her project was far from perfect, I still gave her compliments for her participation. These two students taught me to view student performance from a perspective that I had never thought of before. I feel thankful for being able to see my epistemological limits and engage students with special needs.
The movie starts with a statement, “there are three types of people in the world, those at the top, those at the bottom, and those who fall.” It is important for teachers to understand their epistemic limits and be conscious of social hierarchy. According to Takacs (2002), to listen is the key to social justice. It may be difficult for students of minority cultures to speak up in the beginning as they have been silenced for a long time, but we can start by reflecting on ourselves. Questions like “whose voice has more or less authority” and “why certain questions are asked and answered in class” give us a picture of power relations in school. Indeed, as shown in the movie, people on lower levels are often more aware of the problem of the system, but most of them are not able to make a change. When a teacher plucks up the courage to become one of “those who fall” and see the whole picture of the hierarchical structure, the problems can be brought to the table and changes can be made.
Miharu. Photo from Vocal Media
References
References
Takacs, D. (2002). Positionality, epistemology, and social justice in the classroom. Social Justice, 29(4), 168-181.
Gaztelu-Urrutia, G. (2019). The Platform [Film]. Basque Films.
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