Original subtitles

Mr. Dustin, hi.

Hey, how you doing? All right. Listen, I think I might have made a breakthrough.

Well, as long as it's not a breakdown.

Now, what's this regard?

Well, I think one of my students might be dyslexic. Isn't that great?

No, that's a problem.

You don't understand.

The great part is once it's diagnosed, we can be of help. Now, helping I can

excited about. What have you got? Well, I noticed in one of my students...

This student had similar symptoms to mine when I was diagnosed.

Poor organizational skills, illegible handwriting.

And he made reading mistakes that were characteristic of a dyslexic. I mean,

that's what sealed it for me.

Well, that's very perceptive of you, Theo.

It's all in the line of duty, Mrs. Hudson.

All right.

Now, which one of your students is having these troubles?

Uh, I can't tell you that.

I beg your pardon?

No disrespect, Mrs. Hudson. It's just that I promised him or her that I would

keep it strictly between me and him or me and her.

Well, you all made a bad deal.

Now, this boy or girl may or may not be dyslexic, but in order to find out,

he or she may need to be tested.

So your first assignment is to go to this person and tell him or... Her.

That it's the policy of this center that all of us help him or her.

I understand. Thank you. Thank you for understanding. Good. And while you're at

it, you can tell Stanley we're all behind it.

I think I know why you might not be getting good grades.

Yeah, so do I. Because Latisha won't let me see a touch paper.

Stanley, that's...

You can't always count on Letitia. Now, I've been thinking.

The reason why you're not getting good grades is because you may have what's

called dyslexia.

Ain't nothing wrong with me.

I feel good.

No, you see, it's not a disease.

It's a different way of learning.

You see, I have it, so it's not bad.

You might not have it, but the best thing to do is to take some tests just

make sure.

I ain't taking no tests.

I know what you want to do. You want to put me in a special class for dumb

people. No, no, Sam, that's not it, man.

I mean, people may call you dumb. You may call yourself dumb, but you're not

dumb. I'm not dumb.

We just learn differently, man.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Theo.

Speak for yourself, man.

I'm not different.

I'm just like everybody else.

Get your books out. You know the rules.

Homework first, then recreation.

So come on, guys.

Let's go.

Yo, Theo.

Eugene, the group just started. Don't tell me you got to go to the bathroom

already.

No, man. This is about homework.

Okay. What is it?

In social studies, we're learning about the government.

We're a democracy, right?

Yeah, that's right. We are a democracy.

And democracy means one man, one vote.

Or in my case, one woman, one vote. Right, Theo?

Yeah, that's right, Leticia.

Yeah, and in America, it's our duty to vote for all the things we want.

A majority wins, right, Theo?

Guys, come on. What's the point? The point is, as Americans, I say we vote on

what we do first, recreation or homework.

No, no, no, no, no. See, there's a hole in that theory. I second that. All

right, then let's vote then.

All in favor of recreation first, raise their hands.

All in favor of homework first, raise their hands.

Hey, Theo, my man, I'm afraid you've been outvoted.

Well, not really, Carlos.

You see, while it's true that America is a democracy, once you enter those

doors, you're in Theo land.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Theo land... is a benevolent

run by yours truly, Emperor Theo the Good.

Actually, this vote is the only one that really counts.

Now let's get to that homework.

I finished my homework, Theo. I did it in school.

Oh, good. I'll check it later.

You can, but it's perfect.

Good.

Do you like Mexican food?

It's okay.

I love Mexican food.

What about horror movies?

Leticia. I hate horror movies.

I think they're for kids.

Uh, Leticia.

You want to do me a big favor?

Sure. Well, since you and Stanley are in the same class, you can get the same

assignments. Why don't you work on your homework together?

With Stanley.

Leticia, I would really appreciate it.

Okay,

for you.

Thank you.

Let's go.

What are you doing?

Theo wants us to go over our homework together. So you bet not fool around.

to boss me around.

Well, the teacher's not there to boss you around.

What is all of that?

Look at it this way, Stanley.

If you guys work together, you get done sooner, and you have more time to play

basketball.

Okay, that'll work.

She better not slow me down.

Okay, let's see what we have here.

That's wrong, that's wrong, and that's right. Wait, wait, wait.

That decimal point does so go there.

No, it doesn't. It goes here.

Oh. All right. How about, uh... Now, don't tell me three and a quarter is the

wrong one on that one.

It is.

The answer is four and a half. So you're getting closer.

Four and a half, huh?

What about this one?

Eight.

You know, Leticia, I think we should always do our homework together.

We make a great team.

Just do the problems and I'll watch you. And if I see that you're going wrong,

then I'll help you.

All right.

But I ain't taking orders from you.

You watching?

All right, not bad, Carol. Keep up the good work.

Yo, Rahim, man, what's up?

Nothing. Well, something's up. It's been on the same page for the past hour.

Oh,

okay. I see. This is some high -tech reading method, right?

The words just float off the page into your brain, huh?

Since when are you checking on my pages?

You want some sort of commission?

Rahim, I'm just doing my job.

You know, part of my job is to make sure you do your homework.

I don't know why I'm doing this homework anyway, wasting my time. I'm going to

be a fireman, and this book ain't going to show me how to spray water.

Yo, Raheem, you know the rules, man. You don't do your homework, you can't go

play basketball.

I don't care. I'm retiring my sneakers.

You shouldn't retire those wasted sneakers.

They should be condemned.

Excuse me?

I'm trying to have a conversation with my man over here. Nobody has for your

mouth to get into it.

Yo, yo, yo, come on, come on.

Cool out, you guys.

Leave him alone, Carlos.

You know he's upset because his father got fired.

Did it straight. My father did not get fired. He got laid off like a bunch of

other people.

Yo, guys, it's rec time, all right? Come on, put your books away.

Go play bars, have some fun.

Yo, Raheem, hang on for a second, man.

Yo, come on, let's rap. Have a seat.

You want to talk about it, man?

What's to talk about? They laid off half my father's shift at the paper company.

I'm sorry to hear that, man. I mean, let's just hope it's temporary.

Yeah, I hope so, too.

But in the meantime, I'm not going to be coming to the center.

Why not?

Because I'm the oldest. I got to make some money. So after school, I'm going

be delivering groceries at the supermarket.

After this week, I'm out of here.

Peace, Mr. Huxtable.

Yeah, he's funny.

I wonder where the people go when you turn the TV off.

They're in there.

If they're in there, they're awfully quiet.

What's the matter with the TV?

Nothing. Only he says the people live in the TV.

I don't believe it. Dr. Hoxton will tell him.

Well, people really don't live in the TV sets.

Well, that's what you said.

I know, but you were asking me that question during the time of the Super

Well, see, what I was going to do is I was going to explain it to you later

you get older.

Well, I'm older.

See, the way it really works, if you want to know now, you see,

is that people have a camera and they shoot a picture

of all these people, see, and then they send the signal.

through through the air see and then the aerial is up on top of the of the house

and that picks up the the signal and then it zaps it into the tv set you

see and that's the scientific explanation of how how

tv works yes where do the people come in

There's a little man, and he's about this big.

And the people are all in there, and they're running around, and

he's in charge.

So let's say you have it on four.

So he won't let anybody else in on four.

Because he stops all of the fives and sevens and the things. You all have to

wait until they switch to you.

Well, how does a single man live in there?

Well, he eats whatever the commercials have.

What are you doing?

I'm getting a headache is what I'm doing.

I'm trying to give him a scientific explanation of how TV works.

Oh. Oh, that's very interesting.

Yes. Well, maybe you'd like to explain how the radio works, too.

Yeah! Come on!

Yeah, and while you're at it, why don't you explain how the record player works?

Oh, right!

Yeah!

And how come no singers don't get dizzy when the record spins around?

Well, it's not food poisoning.

How's everything going?

Yo, Dad, that's my pie, man.

You said I could have it.

It's a good pie, too.

Working kind of hard, huh?

Oh, boy, yeah.

Working real hard.

You look it.

I have this one student, Dad, who I think may be dyslexic, but he's hiding

and he won't let me or anybody else help him.

I got another guy.

whose father lost his job.

So now this kid has got to quit the after -school program to get a job

to help his family.

Dad, the kid is in seventh grade.

He wants to be at the community center.

I mean, the little boy needs to be there at the community center.

Today, I saw one of my students in the hallway.

It was a girl. She was zipping up her backpack.

Her backpack was full and her books were in her hand, so of course she looked

suspicious. So I said, what's in the bag?

So she gets an attitude with me as she slams the bag down on the floor.

You know, every day we get these lunches, these box lunches

with apples, carrots, sandwiches, milk, you know. And this one girl, every day

she volunteers.

to go around and collect the garbage and then she goes out in the hallway so of

course i'm thinking she's separating the stuff for recycling dad she opened that

backpack and there was all this food and she told me that she took

the food home to feed her family and the whole time i'm standing there

thinking she's feeling something i mean For as long as I can

remember.

When I'm hungry, I can come down to the kitchen. I go into the refrigerator,

pick what I want, and I'm happy.

And if there's something I want that's not in the refrigerator, I say, yo, mom,

we need some peanut butter. Yo, mom, we need some milk or whatever. And the next

thing you know, the next day, like magic, the food is in there.

I have never had to bring home wasted food to feed my family.

I have never had to quit an activity that I love so much to help support my

family.

Okay, I have dyslexia. We can work with that, right?

Dad, I'm trying to tell you, man, these kids are draining me.

You're drained. You're drained.

And you're fatigued.

But it's a good fatigue, man.

You're going to go to sleep tired.

But you're going to wake up crisp and ready to go.

All right.

Hey, Stanley, you're early.

Yeah, I know I'm early.

Well, you still have some time to play basketball if you want.

No, I decided to pass on basketball.

All right.

See you.

How come you got all those notebooks?

Oh, well, one is for each subject I'm studying.

And each notebook is organized into sections to help me understand things

better.

Man, who wants all those notebooks and stuff?

Well, I do.

If I didn't study in an organized way, I wouldn't be in college.

Did you want to talk to me about something, Stanley?

No.

No.

All right.

Let me ask you a question.

What is this?

I don't know. That's because right now it's nothing.

Recognize this now?

Yeah, it's a bicycle.

Now it's a bicycle.

So when someone used to put schoolwork in front of me, I used to read it, speak

it, and spell it this way.

That's what dyslexia is about, Stanley.

All my life, I felt like I was walking in a basement, and everybody had the

light on but me.

See, I had a little flashlight. I could see a little bit of this, a little bit

of that, but I could never see the whole room.

Stanley, you're walking through life with a flashlight, and you don't have

Come on, man.

There's nothing to the test. There's no needles or nothing.

All you do is talk to a few people, you play a few games. Actually, some of it

is fun.

Look, man, it helped me.

But you're different, man.

Forget it, Stanley.

All right?

Forget I ever mentioned anything about it.

This was you?

Yeah, that was me.

And this is you after all the work?

Yep, except that now my bike's a 10 -speed.

Okay, fine. You want me to take the test? I'll take the test, but it better

10 -speed.

Wait, wait, wait a minute.

You're taking this test as a favor to me?

Yeah, why not? You're cool.

Oh, well, Stanley, I didn't know you were so thoughtful, man.

Hey, man.

I try.

Uh, yo, Theo.

What we draw is going to be part of the state exhibition, right? Yeah, that's

right.

Look at my picture.

Ah, that's very nice, Letitia.

But, uh, who are the two people holding hands?

Beth, you and your girlfriend.

That girl holding hands with Theo looks like you.

That's not me. I don't have green hair.

That's me up in the corner. So, um, who you hold the hands with? That's Theo.

All right, you Rembrandts. Why don't you leave

your paintings on the desk? I'll come around and collect them. Finish them

tomorrow, okay? Have a good one.

Are you going to go and play basketball, Stanley?

Yeah.

I think I'll watch.

It's my last day, Theo.

See you around.

Yeah. Gonna miss you, man.

Yeah, I guess you will.

I don't have anybody to keep me in line now.

You're doing fine on your own. But don't look so sad, man.

As soon as my father lands a job, I'll be right back.

Save a seat for you.

Uh, actually, I don't want that seat.

I want to sit next to that girl, Cal. I think she likes me.

You got it.

Later.

I know it's tough when you lose the kid and you can't do anything about it. But

when I got this job, all I saw was me helping kids.

I thought about the kids. I couldn't help.

Theo, there's nothing you can do about the kids you lose except to know that

didn't lose them as long as you're doing your best.

And I know you're doing that.

Thank you, Mrs. Hudson.

Thank you.

Oh, but you're not there yet.

Oh, I know.

Believe me, I know that.

But I'm growing.