Radical (2023), Film4, written and directed by by Christopher Zalla. Based on the 2013 Wired article, "A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses" by Joshua Davis.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/radical/on-demand/76952-001(link is external)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(film)(link is external)

Matomoris, Mexico 2011. (Based on a true story).

Daniel Haddad as Chucho, headteacher of Jose Urbina Lopez Primary School.

‘Primary education is compulsory and free, but over 50% fail to make secondary education. We’re failing and test scores place us at the very bottom.

Nobody cares what happens here. Just don’t go around kicking hornets’ nests.

Eugenio Derbez as Sergio, ‘NO, why would I?’

We know how it goes next.  Sergio kicks every hornets’ nest he can find.  Child poverty  and exploitation. Drug cartels. Bureaucracy. Indifference as local and national levels. Self-fulfilling prophecies that poor dumb kids are born dumb and get dumber. Education is wasted on them. Only rich kids benefit from education because they’ve inherited the smarts.   

His weapons are pretty cheesy but very pleasing on the eye and ear. Some things you can’t measure. This is a man in love with learning. In love with teaching. He wants to teach his pupils not how to pass (stupid) exams, but how to think. How to teach themselves. How to weight evidence. How to learn. How to become autodidacts without really thinking about it.

One of my favourite books is Ralph Glasser’s Growing up in the Gorbals. Glasser was a genius and working-class autodidact. Before he was ten he understood Einstein’s theory of relativity. Not just the squiggles but the physics. He also understood that to get on in Glasgow he couldn’t score 100 in maths exams at school because nobody liked it. He cut his cloth accordingly and got a job wielding a hot iron on scraps of cloth in a clothes factory.

Jennifer Trejo as Paloma collects rubbish and recycles it for a few pesos. She too is a genius. Sergio doesn’t discover her, but he allows her to be herself. To be a promising child that has dreams. Because this is really what this film is about. Dreams versus the hard landing of reality that begins earlier and earlier in poorer kid’s lives.

The reality is we need bureaucracy, but the middle class and upper classes have monopolised resources in the usual ways, while claiming to uphold virtues and standards that have fallen. Rote learning no longer makes sense. Even the most basic computer has enough ‘memory’ never to forget all the works of the major and minor religions and works of Shakespeare and ‘understand’ numbers and their relationships to things in the way that a handful of humans can. Intelligence, in this sense, is a war that mankind has lost. Pattern-recognition machines may decide humans are an irrelevance.  Or they may keep us as pets, in the same way humans keep horses, which we used to breed to lead us around.

 That’s one way of looking at education, as being out of step and producing nothing of note but bad results for the poorest and increasingly an irrelevance for the rest.  Education here is an argument for a thinking and feeling life.  

World-wide, out with the web, the educational route to a bigger and better life is shutting down quicker than the idea of the moron’s moron’s third term of office. Mexico is, of course, on his list of  ‘shitty countries’ that can offer nothing and should pay to build a wall to keep citizens like Paloma out. More fool he. But we already know that.

Radical is a great uplifting film without being very great or very radical or making Mexico great again. Worth watching.  

 Unleash the Beastie! https://bit.ly/bannkie(link is external)

Notes.

Utopian Education Models

• Child-Centric and Holistic:
  Models such as Montessori and Waldorf prioritize the natural developmental needs of each child. The focus is on enabling self-directed learning, creativity, and holistic development rather than merely imparting standardized knowledge.
• Democratic and Community-Oriented:
  Schools like Summerhill’s ideology with their apparently democratic decision-making processes and shared responsibility among students and teachers. Their stated aim is to cultivate independence, social responsibility, and a collaborative community.
• Integration of Multiple Disciplines:
  Reggio Emilia-inspired approaches emphasize the integration of art, science, and social studies into a fluid, project-based curriculum. This method underscores the belief that learning is contextual and interconnected.

Radical (the Film and Its Underlying Ideals)

• Unleashing Hidden Genius:
  The film is based on an idea popularized by the 2013 Wired article, which suggests that conventional education systems can suppress innate genius and creativity. It embraces the view that radical, nonconforming methods can help reveal and nurture these talents.
• Rejection of Traditional Conformity:
  In Radical, there is a critical tone toward the conventional, test-driven school model. The narrative likely uses satire and drama to question established norms, resonating with the broader call for education that values individual passion over standard metrics.
• Cultural and Contextual Critique:
  By situating the story within a specific cultural context (a Mexican setting), the film adds layers to the conversation about educational reform, using dramatic tension to highlight the clash between creative spark and institutional inertia that dampens it.

2. Methodological Approaches

In Alternative Schools

• Experiential and Hands-On Learning:
  Methods such as Montessori’s use of tactile learning materials or Waldorf’s reliance on storytelling and artistic expression foster engagement through direct experience rather than passive reception.
• Self-Directed and Adaptive Curricula:
  Utopian educational models emphasize flexibility—learners are encouraged to follow their interests at their own pace, and the curriculum adapts to their developmental needs and emerging passions.
• Collaborative and Communal Decision Making:
  Especially in democratic schools like Summerhill, students participate in setting rules and even in designing parts of the educational experience. This method reinforces personal agency and accountability.

In Radical

• Narrative as a Catalyst for Change:
  The film employs storytelling—a core element in many alternative models—to dramatise hidden talents in individuals such as philosophy or maths. In doing so, it weaves together personal transformation, and asks sometimes irreverence to questions such as how many in the classroom would fit in the lifeboats if they were desks, or the density of the classroom teacher in comparison to the headmaster to dispute and weigh existing paradigms.
• Emphasis on Disruption:
  Radical positions the act of challenging established educational practices as both radical and necessary. Its portrayal is likely charged with dramatic irony, showing how systems that value conformity can choke creativity, much like the pedagogical critics of standard education have argued.
• Individual vs. Institutional Conflict:
  While alternative schools often advocate for systemic changes implemented gradually through community evolution, the film monopolises the tension between an innovative individual (or a small group) and a monolithic, resistant institutional structure. This can both highlight the potential of revolutionary change and signal the difficulties of implementing such change in established systems.

3. Outcomes and Societal Impact

Utopian Models in Practice

• Consistent Demand and Oversubscription:
  Models like Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia have demonstrated sustained popularity in the middle-classes, largely due to their ability to foster creativity, emotional well-being, and self-motivated learning. Their success is measured not only academically but also by the development of well-rounded, socially conscious individuals, so they keep telling us.
• Long-Term Transformation:
  The impact of these systems is visible over generations, with alumni often credited for their innovative and independent thinking. These models act as living ongoing social experiments that provide scalable insights for integrating more holistic approaches into mainstream education. See documentary  7UP.

The Film’s Artistic Impact

• Provoking Conversation:
  Radical uses its platform as a comedy-drama to spark discussion about the reformation of education. Its narrative is designed to resonate emotionally and intellectually with audiences, encouraging viewers—especially those frustrated with conventional systems—to reconsider what education could be.
• Emotional and Cultural Resonance:
  By blending humour with incisive critique, the film creates a narrative that is both accessible and reflective of broader societal discontents with traditional educational methods. This can lead to increased public interest and debate about alternative methodologies and the barriers to transformative change.
• Artistic License and Exaggeration:
  Unlike the measured, research-based evolution seen in alternative schools, the film leverages artistic license to exaggerate certain aspects for dramatic effect. This means that while the themes align with utopian ideals, the film’s portrayal is more symbolic and less prescriptive.

4. Comparative Synthesis

• Shared Vision of Empowerment:
  Both the alternative education models and the film Radical promote the idea that education should empower individuals to discover and develop their inherent potential. They call for an educational paradigm that values individual creativity over conformity. Children are our future (literally and metaphorically).
• Methodological Differences:
  Where alternative schools implement gradual, systemic change through innovative classroom practices and community involvement, Radical dramatises the clash between individual genius and the bureaucratic inertia of traditional systems. Break things and move. Wired. The film’s approach is more confrontational and narrative-driven, while alternative models focus on embedding change over time through everyday learning.
• Cultural Framing:
  The global reach of models such as Montessori or Waldorf is contrasted with the film’s context-specific narrative. While the educational models have been internationally adapted and implemented with consistent core values, Radical reflects regional cultural dynamics (in this case, a Mexican border town) which influence the way educational rebellion is portrayed.
• Real-World Application vs. Artistic Interpretation:
  Alternative educational methodologies offer concrete practices—such as mixed-age classrooms, experiential learning spaces, and democratic governance structures—that have been refined over many decades. In contrast, Radical serves as an allegory; its portrayal of a “radical” method is filtered through the prism of cinematic storytelling, offering inspiration and critique rather than a step-by-step guide to reform.