Children of a Lesser God Essay

This film is based on a stage play of the same title. It tells about James Leeds, a man who teaches children with special needs in a school for the deaf and those who are hard of hearing. He is a devoted and inventive teacher who shows a deep compassion for his students, applying teaching methods he could think of just to draw out the interest of his students to learn, do more and accomplish things to the fullest of their capacity. James meets and falls in love with Sarah Norman, a beautiful woman who works for the same school and has been deaf since she was a baby. At first Sarah avoids James until he is able to draw her out from her shell and eventually he is able to convince her to live together. Sarah is full of bitterness, hurt and other emotional scars over the mistreatment she experienced while she was growing up because of her impairment and this jeopardizes their relationship. Sarah has to come to terms with her personal issues and needs to feel that she is an independent woman. In due course, they are able to settle things amidst the difficulties they come across in communication. The movie made me realize the significance of communication among people and people who have communication disorders should be given special attention in order for them to be heard. Even individuals who are fully capacitated physically have a hard time in getting messages understood. I just hope that there will be more teachers like James Leeds in this world who loves what he does and changes the lives of other people. The movie, which focuses mostly on the hearing impaired, is very much relevant to this course. It gives us the glimpse of how they live and struggle to be understood and to understand others. It portrays the complexity of their lives and helps us appreciate how difficult things are for them and moves us to do something for them. WORKS CITED Children of a Lesser God. Dir. Randa Haines. Perfs. William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie, Phillip Bosco. VCD. Paramount Pictures, 1986.