Hundreds of 8th-graders get free 'Hidden Figures' tickets
When an anonymous donor gave 835 movie tickets to Brandywine School District last week, the focus wasn't so much on "the arts" or theater appreciation as it was on inspiring an entire class of students.
The donation allowed eighth-graders from all three of the districts' middle schools to see the movie "Hidden Figures" for free, Brandywine spokesperson Alexis Andrianopoulos said Tuesday.
Based on a previously untold story, the film is about three African-American women — Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — who were the brains behind the 1962 space launch that made astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. the first American to orbit Earth.
Not only did the operation restore the nation's confidence and establish the U.S. as a contender in the "space race," but it saw the three women do something previously unthinkable: step out of their roles as "human computers," underpaid and underestimated, and make a lasting impact on the country's space program.
"In terms of learning, this just had a really big impact," said Tamecah Pinkney, an eighth-grade science teacher at Talley Middle School.
She and her students saw the movie Jan. 25. Pinkney had recently wrapped up a unit that included astronomy, which made it a great tie-in, she said; a couple of students even noticed that one of the math equations featured in the beginning of the movie was solved incorrectly.
STORY: Smyrna superintendent retires after 40 years
STORY: UD student's mother at center of immigration lawsuit
But really, "Hidden Figures" went beyond that.
"A lot of them were very impressed, inspired and motivated," said Pinkney, who had each student write a reflection on the film.
A big theme of the movie was perseverance, the science teacher said. The women were told "no" more than once but followed their hearts.
They also made a concentrated effort to pursue their education: Johnson, for instance, was one of three students (and the only woman) to desegregate West Virginia's graduate school.
Jackson completed engineering classes and became NASA's first black female engineer, while Vaughan, fighting social barriers erected under Jim Crow, taught herself how to program and operate computers so she and her co-workers would not be replaced by machines.
"It shows how far we've moved since the civil rights era," Pinkney said.
Many of her students were appalled at how the three women were treated by their superiors in the movie, she added, and questioned why that behavior was allowed.
For Pinkney, an African-American woman, the students' reactions were particularly stirring.
“I cried four times during the movie; I’m very emotional that way," she said. "And I think what moved me the most was that there was a lot of really appropriate applause from the students."
STORY: DSEA president election ends in tie
STORY: Fallout from immigration order roils on
Rob Michalcewiz, an eighth-grade English teacher at Springer Middle School, said his students seemed to truly realize the enormity of last week's gift.
"I think that after seeing the movie, the gratitude that they expressed, to us as teachers, really overwhelmed all of us, because they really appreciated what was done for them," he said.
He thinks it's also important for students to realize how hard people had to work during the civil rights era to make opportunities for themselves.
After the movie, Michalcewiz and his students discussed the implications of racial segregation and its impact on Delaware. Seeing a movie that portrays racial bias is a lot different from reading about it, the English teacher said, and can have a bigger impact.
"I had this discussion with my students," Michalcewiz said. "I've been a teacher for 21 years and having been a grade-school student that went through desegregation in Brandywine schools. ... I've always had a lot of information from a book perspective, from an informative perspective. But when you see the movie ... it's amazing that we treated people the way we did."
'Hidden Figures' donations
Brandywine School District was not the only one to receive "Hidden Figures" tickets from an anonymous donor.
Both the Red Clay and Colonial school districts also received donations, reportedly from the same source, Red Clay spokesperson Pati Nash said.
Delaware is not the only state to have had free "Hidden Figures" tickets donated en masse.
African-American business leaders in New York in January launched an initiative to offer free admission to the movie for over 25,000 students, while Taraji Henson, who played Johnson in the movie, reportedly bought out showings of the movie in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., so several hundred people could see it for free.
Octavia Spencer, who played Vaughan, provided free tickets to low-income families in Los Angeles, and Jim Parsons, who also starred in the film, gave away free tickets in Houston.
In other parts of the country, fundraising campaigns have been launched for the express purpose of sending as many young girls to the movie for free as possible.
Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.