I love true life stories, and love Jamie Gertz, but I was disappointed with her and the script, although the move was good overall. The idea that she would walk in and be able to immediately say "you are so valuable" or something like that seems just a bit arrogant. She would not have gained their trust in the first day or week. Putting her students on the spot so soon in front of their peers was another thing that looked unrealistic.

I don't know if I misunderstood the timing or what. Later, her relationship was more realistic, but the lines just as saccharine.

The kids were great. Their realities were intense and realistic, and heartwrenching. Her having to come to grips with her own reality was important; it created an equality between her and that kids that was realistic.

Very good, but not great.

Jami Gertz turned in a dynamite performance in this movie. She played an Ex-Parole Officer turned Part-Time Instructor. She endured skepticism and indifference from members of a high school with students enduring serious social problems in the real world. She gradually earned respect and admiration from the students and the instructors later in the movie. They later visit a state prison -- in which the fathers of many children have been incarcerated for numerous offenses. The plot maintained energy and direction during the movie. She grew a set of balls in this movie. The students endure the roles of what the real world was like upon winning trust from the children. In the end, all but one student graduated from school -- thus looking forward to more productive lives outside the drug-infested world of government housing, gangs, beatings, substandard employment opportunities, and misery of Houston. Way to Go!!