Last week, I watched a movie called “Dream” and the original title “Hidden Figures,” which won this year’s Academy Award for Best Picture.” Moonlight” and “La La Land” compete to the end. “La La Land” also grossed “La La Land” at the box office in the United States. Seems to have earned more.
It is said that the reason why the release was delayed is that there are no famous stars in Japan, but in our house the situation is different. Jim Parsons, aka Sheldon from “The Big Bang Theory,” was cast as NASA’s main engineer, so I was very curious. Jim Parsons is a young science and engineering scholar who is the highest-paid TV actor in the United States.
The film stars three real-life black women who were behind the scenes of the Mercury Project in the United States, which seeks to rocket humanity into Earth’s orbit. Their job is to be a computer, or in Japanese, to be a calculator. It’s the 1960s, so “computers” are still human, manual calculators. The film features IBM-developed calculators first introduced by NASA, but they are also known as “computer machines” or “computer systems.”
In this film, we can experience some poignant scenes in which black women in the United States overcome outright discrimination and precedent-shifting. It’s a story based on a true story. During the war and during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, there was a shortage of computers or calculators, so it seems that black women were also employed. However, under the policy of segregation, toilets were separate, and bus seats, libraries, and schools were separate. In addition to the issue of race, it was also a natural time not to allow women to participate in important conferences. In other words, it was a time when there was a wall of double discrimination.
It is said that this movie was a hit because dads, moms, and school teachers went to the cinema with their children. In particular, it seems that the mobilization has increased significantly because the children of people of Mexican descent, such as the area where poor black people live in the United States, went to see it. Even if there is discrimination, if you can study, you can overcome the wall. It also means showing in a movie an example of how to fight and overcome discrimination in this way.
It made me think about a few things, but I remembered them. In the United States, a community college provided an educational opportunity for people who once went out into society. A girl named Mary Jackson wants to be an engineer who designs rockets, but she’s rejected because she doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree in engineering. What’s more, she was in a school where only white people could get their degrees. Mary goes to court and allows her judge to attend night school, and she becomes an engineer with the help of her husband, who initially didn’t understand her. The scene that persuades this judge is my favorite scene. Helping people seek educational opportunities towards their goals. And the person who has the opportunity makes an effort to achieve the goal. At first glance it’s simple, but I think it’s the essence of higher education.
Mary’s school isn’t a community college, so let me introduce her, although it’s a little off-topic from her true story. Community colleges exist in the United States to provide a wide range of higher education opportunities. It is a two-year educational facility established by the state and local governments, and if you have a high school diploma, you can enter without an exam. After two years of attending a community college near my parents’ home, transferring to a four-year university and becoming a bachelor’s degree is an economically efficient course, and it is very common. According to a 2014 survey, “Community college students are often from working classes or racially minorities. They are 25 years of age or older and have parents compared to regular four-year college students. However, community college students are very motivated, self-directed, and tolerant, despite the many obstacles they face. ” .. In fact, when I was transferred to the United States in the late 1990s, her wife took several classes at a community college near her home. She remembers being able to take the course at a very low price when she was transferred to work for the second year, that is when she lived for more than a year. I remember proving that I was a resident with a payment slip for electricity or gas. She said she was more than happy when her wife invited a Vietnamese student to lunch at the time and treated her to a few dollars of lunch. She said she was impressed with the student’s obsession with continuing to study to qualify, even though the student had cut down on food expenses and attended school.
I think that the mechanism of community colleges may be studied in Japan as well. There are several benefits. Since the tuition fee is considerably cheaper than that of a 4-year university, the high tuition and living expenses at a 4-year university can be reduced to 2 years on the premise of transfer. To be able to provide qualified persons who have obtained a master’s degree or doctoral degree but are not blessed with work with the opportunity to work as teachers and educators of higher education in the region. And it is to give people who have once entered the society an opportunity to relearn in the community.
In the United States, during President Obama’s time, a policy was announced to make community college tuition-free. At that time, I learned that some states had been making community colleges free of charge before that. It is premised on maintaining a certain level of grades, but it seems that some of them are free of charge.
This month, I would like to introduce you to a community college in the United States, although it has evolved a little from the story of the movies “Dream” and “Hidden Figures”.
