Chapter 24: Ten Films That Include NLP Processes 363
Stand and Deliver
Nothing to do with Adam and the Ants, but instead a terrific film based on a
true story of a high-school teacher motivating his class of East Los Angeles
barrio youngsters to believe in themselves and overcome stereotyping.
What’s really interesting, and adds to the humour, is how Jamie Escalante,
played by Edward James Olmos, paces his students to lead them to learning
calculus (check out Chapter 7 for more on pacing people successfully). He
uses similar gestures and body language to those of the students and uses
rap to teach them simple mathematics. With a well-formed outcome in mind,
Escalante shows considerable flexibility in his behaviour.When Jamie can’t teach computing because of a lack of computers, he
chooses to teach maths instead. As the class comes under suspicion for
cheating, because they’ve done so well, Jamie demonstrates flexibility in his
behaviour and persuades his class to re-sit the test. Curiously, other teachers
are against the students being taught maths or to aspire to better themselves.
They are driven by fear of failure. The other teachers are afraid that if the
students fail, it will knock what little self-esteem they have.One key lesson to take from this film is to be careful of trying to protect
people from what you may see as their weakness. You may in fact be
colluding in keeping them trapped in their comfort zone and stopping them
from growing due to the filter you’re applying to the situation (turn to
Chapter 5 for more on communication).Starring: Edward James Olmos. Director: Ramón Menéndez. Studio: Warner
Studios (1988).NLP at the Cinema
The preceding sections give you a taste of the NLPisms to look for in a film,
so why don’t you now try your hand at sharpening your own NLP skills.
Whenever you watch a film, see whether you can spot the items from the
following list of suggestions:✓ Which NLP presuppositions are demonstrated in this film?
✓ What do you notice about rapport in this film?
✓ What maps of the world are depicted – how do they match up to your
reality?