Alicia Rogers
Steven Wexler
Multi-Genre Literacy in a Global
Context
13 May 2013
Slumming
for Education:
The
Value of Real World Knowledge in Slumdog
Millionaire
In America there is a tendency to discount knowledge that is gained
outside of traditional education. People
trust it less and, therefore, count it less. There’s a belief that going to school will
lead to a good job and complete success. It comforts people, especially in this country
where we believe that success stems from one’s own efforts; if you just work
hard enough, then you have no choice but to succeed. There are the few lucky people, like Bill
Gates, who manage to be successful outside of traditional models, but even they
are often distrusted and seen as the exceptions that prove the rule. Yet as Gayle Gregory and Carolyn Chapman say
in their book, Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size
Doesn’t Fit All, ““we all learn in
different ways, process information differently, and have distinct preferences
about where, when, and how we learn” (19). In many ways, the film Slumdog Millionaire can be seen as a clear critique on this very
issue—especially when coupled with the running theme of globalization. The film is very much a social commentary on
the global aspects of gleaning knowledge through myriad ways—even those outside
of traditional models.
For
Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire, learning
took place as it applied to his life rather than through a traditional
schooling model. Even at the beginning
of the film, the ideology of traditional schooling is portrayed as an
imperialist element. When Jamal and Salim are in school, they are literally
beaten over the head with a text from their colonial oppressors. The symbolism would be lost had they been
studying a native Indian text. This
moment sets up the initial conflict, not only with the global issues of
imperialism, but also the far more personal conflict that Jamal faces. Jamal fits into the same framework that Frederic
Jameson emphasizes when he says that “we are all shackled to an ideological subject-position,
we are all determined by class and class history, even when we try to resist or
escape it” (46). Jamal is shackled to
the state of being from the slums of India.
He cannot contemplate a better life for himself because his reality is
shaped by the conditions that created him.
His goal in joining “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” was not fame or
fortune, but rather seeking out his predestined love. In fact, the police and the other people in
power cannot reshape their reality enough to believe that Jamal can have the
knowledge that he has to answer the game show questions.
The whole
structure of the movie emphasizes this fact. As each question is asked, Jamal relies on a
concrete experience from his past to determine the answer. From the opening scene of the film, there is
tension because of the aforementioned belief that knowledge must be gained
through traditional means in order to count. Because Jamal did not complete a traditional
education program, the police believe that he cannot have the knowledge that he
has on the show. Because Jamal comes from the slums, he must be cheating. The Inspector puts it most clearly in the
opening sequence of the film when he bursts in frustration that “professors, lawyers, doctors, general knowledge wallahs never get beyond
sixteen thousand rupees…What the hell can a slum dog possibly know?” This is an extension of the distrust that many
people have over non-traditional education and poor people, in general. It’s an extension of Jameson’s knowledge that
our minds our imprisoned “in a non-utopian present” wherein there is no reality of utopia
because it resides outside of our life experience (Jameson 46). The film structure highlights the problems
with this framework by undermining the imperialist nature of traditional
education.
Jamal’s
education is life-based; everything that he knows was learned through a
directly applicable moment in his life. He
is a concrete sequential thinker with learning “based in the physical world identified
through [his] senses” (Gregory 22). He
notices the details around him and recalls them easily. It’s the way his brain works to organize
information. Jamal doesn’t need the
structure of traditional education; details are openly apparent for him. Additionally, later in the film, the Inspector
mocks Jamal for not knowing an answer that he viewed as easy. Jamal fights this perception when he asks the
police a question that “everyone in Juhu knows…even five-year-olds” (Boyle). This moment emphasizes the accessibility of
traditional education. Jamal knows the
things that apply to his life. Because
he did not have access to traditional education, the things that are typically
taught don’t apply to him. Again, the
film highlights the need to make knowledge applicable to each individual
student, to individualize it outside of the broad outlines that imperialism
dictates. Jamal’s learning is just as valid
as that of a more classic approach; it’s just that it’s individualized and
specific. Not all learners need
traditional structures of reading and writing and lecture. In fact, for many students these methods do
not work at all.
The
global accessibility of information through education is contrasted through the
film by the aspects of cultural globalization.
When Maman entices young Jamal to join his group of youth, he presents
the poor boy with a bottle of Coke—an American icon. This is a pure moment wherein “imperialism has returned full throated to the councils of international
relations, [while] finance is rarely seated at the table” (Martin). The life with Maman was still one of
poverty. Yet, the poverty was masked by the
American icon of Coca-Cola. These two
images are placed beside each other to mark the contrast between imperial
models and real world truths.
Throughout
the course of the film, audiences are led on a journey through the life of
Jamal Malik and through the contrasts between a globalized society and real
world truths. This journey directs
viewers to broaden their minds in regards to what matters intellectually. It questions the importance of traditional
education and asks readers what answers they have in their own lives—what risks
they are willing to take even. The story
of Jamal proves that knowledge only stays with a person insofar as it can be
applied to his/her own life. In fact,
Jamal’s seemingly worthless mind held onto the knowledge that eventually earned
his livelihood. More telling than that,
however, is the fact that his last answer had to come from his gut instinct—a
pure and simple guess—to the tune of twenty million Indian rupees.
Works Cited
Gregory, Gayle H. and Carolyn
Chapman. Differentiated Instructional
Strategies: One Size
Doesn’t Fit All. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press,
2002. Print.
Jameson, Fredric. “The Politics of Utopia”. Political Quarterly
24 Aug. 2005: 35-54. Web. 7
May 2013.
Martin, Randy.
“Where Did the Future Go?” Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web. 9 May
2013.
Slumdog Millionaire. Dir. Danny Boyle. Perf. Dev Patel,
Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor.
Celador Films,
2008. Digital Stream.
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