Commentary On Good Will Hunting

I watched Good Will Hunting on June 13, 2016. It was two hours and six minutes long. The main character Will Hunting is a janitor at MIT. Professor Lambeau at MIT posts a mathematical problem on the chalkboard outside his classroom. Will solves the problem but doesn’t tell anyone that he was the one that solved. Professor Lambeau see’s that Will was the one that solved it and tracks him down. Will is facing jail time, but professor Lambeau get’s Will out if he agrees to work him on mathematics and receive therapy. Will challenges many therapists and they won’t work with him. Finally, professor Lambeau asks an old college friend Sean Maguire to help. When Will tries to push Sean it doesn’t work. Sean asks about Skylar a girl who Will likes.

He hates doing the problems that don’t challenge him. “Students with exceptional abilities continue to be an underidentified, undeserved, and too often inappropriately served.” (340) Will like many other students aren’t identified and given proper help with there talent. Many times students just receive more work. I have now learned gifted students do not need more work to hone their abilities, they need harder/different work. This is a misconception often made. If students aren’t properly served they will never be able to gain everything they could from an

“Gifted students have the same physiological and psychological needs as their peers.” (346) Something that Will has to identify with before his full potential is that he has an emotional problem. He was abused as a child and until he is able to accept it he isn’t going to have a serious interpersonal relationship. Furthermore, from personal experience I have come to agree with this quote “A common problem is a mismatch between [gifted and talented students] academic, social, and emotional needs and the programming they receive.” (341) My sister was in a gifted program and while she was getting the academic help that she needed. Many of the students weren’t accepted socially and were treated poorly. Sadly, the school at the middle school didn’t do anything to integrate the students and it left them with emotional problems connecting with students. I do not know if this is the problem throughout all schools but this seemed to be the problem throughout all my school years. In conclusion Good Will Hunting is a good example of some of the challenges that gifted and talented people face. First, they can be bored if not properly identified, and served. Secondly, they still need the same attention that adults give to students without exceptionalities. Finally, students with exceptionalities face the same social-emotional problems