Mona Lisa Smile - 5

This is a film about Wellesley in 1954, and follows a new art history professor and her students. I was interested in seeing this film because it relates to a book that I am currently reading for my History of Higher Education class, called In the Company of Educated Women. The book and the film deal with the issues of women students and the tension between family, education, marriage, and women's role in a mostly male dominated society (All of this being very debatable, which opens the door for some great discussion and learning conversations). The film packs in the issues of the time by giving each of the characters one of the many to choose from. One is thinking of going to grad school, one is try to be married and a student, others are dealing with moving from the lower classes to upper classes of society through education, etc. There is also great question on aesthetics in the scenes from the art classes like, What is art? Who says so? etc. Ultimately, professor Watson and the students are challenged to figure out if teaching and learning are about training or transformation, and what is the purposes and goals of education are. (note: don't miss the Tori Amos citing, and the song Istanbul, not Constantinople, sung more recently by They Might Be Giants.)