"Radio"

Assigned: Watch and give thoughts on the movie "Radio"

     I had seen the movie "Radio" when it first came out several years ago.  I remembered that it was quite moving and extremely well done.  It was well acted and I liked the way the director used the sun and the political news of the day to show the passage of time.
     Watching "Radio" again, from a future educators perspective, truly enhanced its meaning for me.  I now understand the options of "mainstreaming" versus an isolated class setting or even the one time option of letting the young person "spend his life, wanderin' around all by himself, wandering the streets."
     I appreciated the way the coach approached Radio slowly; getting him to understand in simple ways, like having the assistant coach bring him a water bottle, sharing a burger with him, giving him a ride home and eventually finding a way Radio could help out with the team.
     At one point he has Radio, Mr.Kennedy is his real name, attending school.  Mr. Kennedy goes from having no speech to doing the morning announcements at L.C. Hanna High School and sitting in standard classrooms. He  receives an honorary degree from the high school and continues working with the school in an assistant coach/team and crowd motivator and was still doing so at the time the movie was made.
     This is when you find out, if you did not know already, that this is a true story.  Mr. Kennedy is 50 years old and still working at L.C. Hanna High School.  What  a difference was made in this man's life by a teacher who decided it was the right thing to do to get this young man involved; a teacher who chose not to assume that Mr. Kennedy would not be able to contribute to this world because of his mental limitations. A teacher, who knew instinctively, that it was "never a mistake to care for someone."