Good Will Hunting (1997) is
an entertaining movie set in contemporary Boston about Will Hunting, a young college-aged
genius* who works as a laborer and who by the end of the movie is fortunate
enough to move to a situation that fits his mental gifts. During the movie
there is a scene in a pub where he gets into an argument with a college student
about the study of History. Will repeats passages verbatim from a history book.
He tells the student that he could save the thousands of dollars he pays to go
to college by simply buying a Library card and reading the History books in the
Library. This scene brings laughter of approval from some in the theatre’s audience.
We did not laugh. The study of History in College, yes the students read, but it is to learn how to write the history books and journal articles that others will
read. Look at the final pages of a History journal article. There you will see 20,
or 50, or 100, or more articles, entries from diaries, from government
archives, old newspaper articles, transcripts of interviews, and more listed.
These the writer of the article read and organized the information into a
coherent narrative, that, in turn, was reviewed by an editorial board familiar
with the subject, and likely amended, before it is published. While learning to
do this the students, if the process 'takes', become critical thinkers and problem solvers no
matter the profession they enter after college.
Now about that scene in the pub. Perhaps
our hero is a genius but that scene made him look like a fool, showing the
resentment some uneducated people have for the educated. Moreover, the student
in the scene is more an uneducated person’s idea of a college student. The
unfortunate actor has to portray a ‘central casting’ snob who would ‘put down’ a
person thought to be lower in status. There are some like him, but
most students would not get into that argument. They would not ‘bite on’ the
provocation. They might politely listen and think the person odd, pathetic, and
maybe a danger. This scene is unfortunate in what was otherwise a nice fable.
*We leave it to the reader to
believe that such people exist, or that knowledge comes any way other than from time
and hard work.
END