Tonight, Tonight!

The film I enjoyed today was West Side Story. There are some uplifting parts of this film, but its overall powerful message is perfect for a rainy day. When I was a kid and we stayed home from school sick we got to watch old movies with Mom. I loved musicals. I still do and mostly because I got to watch them back then, secretly I think my mom just put them in because she knew we would fall asleep faster when it was not a cartoon. And in a movie like this, I would fall asleep before the sad and more serious parts in this film.

I learned a lot for rewatching West Side Story. I did not know before today that the original theater production was loosely based on Romeo and Juliet. It makes sense when you watch the film about Puerto Rican kids and Polish kids living in New York City that are torn apart by racism and hate and there are two lovers in the center of the conflict. Duh! I cannot believe I never connected those dots before now!

As in most theatrical musicals that were made into films in this era the songs are AWESOME. I feel as though "I'm So Pretty" sung by Maria is one of my favorite songs in this movie, and in Dirty Dancing when Lisa sings it as they are preparing for the final show at Kellerman's. And the classics like "Tonight" and "America" are quite catchy. When I was thinking about RA programs in this film I knew that the core message of this film is still a message that young people need to hear. Messages about hate, racism, gangs, etc. are still be taught all over the place and certainly would make an excellent floor program. So I challenged myself a bit further to stretch some other areas of the film. 

One topic I thought that could be addressed is Group Think. When a group of people make sometimes questionable decisions because the group mentality has diminished individual thought and critical thinking that is a sign that group think has taken over. Especially when the desire to be loyal to a group or being desperate to be part of a group take over in someone's thought process. This can happen all over on a college campus, in sports teams, Greek life, student orgs. Even RAs can form quite the group. Even though RAs are paid to not make questionable decisions...once training ends who knows! They start taking pens and masking tape from the office or each other, they start showing films without purchasing the movie rights, even at times leaving FERPA protected information out in the open on their desks! I shudder at the thought. 

But West Side Story highlights what can happen with Group Think goes wrong. Peer pressure and the power of groups can start great conversations. (Maybe even bring in that activity with the brown eyes and blue eyes that was highlighted on PBS to add to the program.) I think this could even be accomplished in RA training, after spending a week building team on each individual staff we could facilitate this type of activity on one of the last days. As long as there is a well facilitated discussion (and the RAs are unaware of the exercise) it could be a sweet program!

Just typing this post reignited my excitement for August and RA Training! #reslife