Ep11 Positive Cinematic Spotlight - The Shining - a podcast by Academy for Success

Welcome back, Wolf Pack, to another Positive Cinematic Spotlight! As Halloween gets closer and closer, we continue to look at horror movies for positive ideas and encouraging thoughts. This week we look at another Stanley Kubrik film, this time from 1980: The Shining.
Stanley Kubrik’s The Shining is based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name, his first hardback bestseller. While King was disappointed in the film for its handling of the themes King intended and the movie's interpretation of the character of Wendy Torrence, Kubrik’s movie is considered one of the best horror films ever made. In the movie, Jack is a former teacher, alcoholic, and struggling writer looking for a change of scenery and solitude to write a novel. He gets an opportunity to caretake for the Overlook Hotel, an isolated mountain hotel in Colorado which shuts down during the winter months. While he and his family, wife Wendy and son Danny stay there, the hotel is soon discovered to be haunted and negatively affecting Jack. In the original novel, a major theme is about how actions have lasting effects, as Jack was an abused child, and as a father, while trying to control it, Jack had been abusive to Danny. Similarly, the hotel had been a scene of several episodes of violence, each leaving its mark or aura on the Overlook Hotel and making it a malevolent force encouraging Jack to continue the cycle of violence.
The movie leaves out Jack’s backstory and much of the Overlook’s history, minimizing that theme. What we have in its place, however, is a theme of a protagonist, Jack Torrence, who abuses himself with alcohol, overwork, and stress, leading him to become sleep deprived, uncommunicative, and abusive to his family. The Overlook Hotel is clearly prodding Jack’s negative thoughts, but there’s an impression that if Jack didn’t isolate himself physically and emotionally, under the guise of working on his novel, and spent more time with his family, things may have turned out differently. If only he had taken care of himself physically and emotionally.Similarly, we, in the field of education, need to watch out for overworking ourselves, isolating ourselves, and mounting stress upon ourselves. Many of us find ourselves adapting to the new education format, and in doing so are spending more time learning new technology tools and methods to teach, and converting lessons we’ve used in the past into virtual formats. Some districts have teachers juggling both virtual and traditional classes. We are stressing about our students’ educational progress, keeping up with deadlines, and, in reality, nothing new from last year or the year before, except… the increased technology demands, but that’s enough to put us at risk of overworking ourselves, overstressing, and isolating ourselves to maintain focus and get our work up to date. But we need to avoid this.Don’t neglect yourself, don’t neglect your sleep, your friends and family, don’t neglect your health. These stresses can, and will, have a negative effect on your attitude and enthusiasm for the job and your interactions with students. It won’t be as extreme as Jack Torrence’s reaction, but we will become less patient and less available for our students who need us compassionate and observant.
And as the novel shows us, negativity breeds negativity, but we can also extrapolate that positivity breeds positivity. Tending to our own needs makes it easier to tend to the needs of others, and being positive and supportive of our students leads to a more positive teaching environment with fewer disciplinary troubles. So, what have you done for yourself? Gotten the recommended 8 hours of sleep? Maintained a regular eating schedule? Taken time off from all stresses to enjoy your favored pastime? Be sure to do so. You’ll be happier, you’ll be a more effective teacher, and your students will benefit. Thank you for all that you do, thank you for being the best, thank you for taking care of yourself, and thank you for

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