Featuring a Student-Centered Approach to Teaching the Book, the Short Story, or the Movie
SUBJECTS — Science Fiction; Literature;
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Disabilities; Courage;
MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Caring; Responsibility.
AGE: 12+; MPAA Rating — None;
Drama; 1968; 115 minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com.
MOST STUDENTS LIKE THE BOOK BETTER THAN THE MOVIE! This film is based on the award-winning novel, Flowers for Algernon. In our experience and that of other teachers, most students who have both read the book and have seen the movie, prefer the book. However, students are eager to watch just about any film. Seeing the movie after they have read the book offers students the opportunity to make comparisons between the book and the film. This Learning Guide offers insights into teaching both the printed and filmed versions of the story.
Charly, a developmentally disabled man in his early 30s, works at a bakery where he is reasonably happy and believes that he has friends. After he qualifies for a scientific experiment to increase his intelligence through an operation that has only been tried on laboratory mice, his troubles begin. Charly rapidly changes from having a very low IQ to being a genius. In the process, he gains insight into the motivations of the scientists and some of the flaws in society. The effects of the operation reverse, however, and he returns to his former mental state.
Selected Awards: 1969 Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Cliff Robertson); 1969 Golden Globe Awards: Best Screenplay (Stirling Silliphant); 1969 Golden Globe Nominations: Best Picture and Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama (Cliff Robertson)
Featured Actors: Cliff Robertson as Charly Gordon; Claire Bloom as Alice Kinnian; Lilia Skala as Dr. Anna Straus; Leon Janney as Dr. Richard Nemur; Ruth White as Mrs. Apple; Dick Van Patten as Bert; Edward McNally as Gimpy.
Director: Ralph Nelson.
Charly, a developmentally disabled man in his early 30s, works at a bakery where he is reasonably happy and believes that he has friends. After he qualifies for a scientific experiment to increase his intelligence through an operation that has only been tried on laboratory mice, his troubles begin. Charly rapidly changes from having a very low IQ to being a genius. In the process, he gains insight into the motivations of the scientists and some of the flaws in society. The effects of the operation reverse, however, and he returns to his former mental state.
“Charly” is a serious attempt to transfer to the screen a story originally told in the form of a novel. However, even relatively faithful movie adaptations of novels omit characters, plot lines, significant events, helpful descriptions, and important ideas. There simply isn’t time in most movies to include everything that’s in a book. It is ironic that although a picture may be worth a thousand words, a movie almost never contains as many interesting events and as much detail as a novel. In addition, the requirements of printed fiction and of stories told on the screen are very different; adaptation to film often requires changes in the way the story is told.
Students who have both read Daniel Keyes’ novel, Flowers for Algernon, and seen the film, will be able to gain considerable insight into the complications of adapting a novel to a movie. Assignments can be geared toward determining whether or not the changes in the film advance the themes of the novel.
A description of some of the interesting differences between “Charly” and Flowers for Algernon are set out below:
(1) In Flowers for Algernon, Charly tells his own story through journal entries written as part of the scientific experiment. Charly uses the first person, describing what happens to him and what he thinks about those events. This device allows the author to fully describe Charly’s emotional life. Ancillary issues such as treatment of mentally disabled people and the ethics of scientific investigation are important only in their impact on Charly. The only time that the journal entries are not in the first person is when Charly recalls an experience from his childhood. In those entries, Charly uses the third person, establishing distance from the past.
In the film, the story is told by an omniscient author. While the screenwriters and the actors do a good job of describing Charly’s emotions, the change in point of view inevitably results in a dilution of the book’s focus on Charly’s thoughts and feelings.
(2) Charly returns for a visit to his father, mother, and sister in the novel; these difficult experiences are not addressed in the movie.
(3) In the novel, Keyes describes a superficial sexual relationship between a neighbor in the building where the newly intelligent Charly has rented an apartment. The novel also details a love affair between Miss Kinnian and Charly. These interactions and Charly’s sexual difficulties, associated with his mother’s uptight attitudes and her fear of Charly’s emerging sexuality, challenge the readers to face the prospect of the rights of every individual to have a sex life.
(4) Respect for Charly as a human is a powerful focus of interest in the novel. Several times in his journal, Charly demands that his humanity be recognized. In an entry dated June 10, Charly fully grapples with his childhood, and in reference to a quack doctor, Guarino, who had manipulated his parents into paying for treatments that Guarino claimed could cure retardation, Charly writes that Guarino treated him as a human being. Charly resents being treated like a guinea pig and writes that he is bitter about the scientists’ “constant references to having made me what I am, or that someday there will be others like me who will become real human beings.” p. 101. The focus on Charly’s humanity continues through the next several pages and on his June 13 entry, Charly writes: “I’m a human being, a person-with parents and memories and a history-and I was before you ever wheeled me into that operating room.” p. 112. The film addresses this issue but only obliquely, and it is the audience watching the film that wants Charly to be seen as a human rather than Charly himself. This is evidence of the success of the film in conveying an idea that originates in the novel.
(5) Several ethical issues are addressed in the book but are absent altogether from the film. In Charly’s journal entry dated April 24, he writes about the issue of privacy. Now that his intelligence has increased so that he can understand what conversations are all about, he begins to feel that he has no right to listen to people when they don’t know that he comprehends their meaning. “They might not have cared when I was too feeble minded to know what was going on, but now that I could understand, they wouldn’t want me to hear it.” p. 49. Charly moves out of hearing range, allowing the speakers their privacy.
In the May 8 journal entry, an ethical focus emerges as Charly grapples with a decision he must make about whether to report on-going theft by Gimpy, his friend, at work. Charly feels loyalty to the owner, Mr. Donner, a family friend, and does not want to see him cheated by the petty theft that may have been going on for years. Still, Charly does not want to be a snitch and get his friend, a family man who needs the job, fired. In his entry dated May 11, he finds a compromise and resolves the issue.
The ethics of scientific investigation and the use of test subjects are addressed in both the novel and the film. The focus of interest in the novel, however, raises the question of the morality of changing a person to fit a social norm as opposed to valuing his or her life as it is. Charly begins to split into two people, his former self and his emerging self. He seems to feel that the old Charly, the “moron” wants his life back. In an entry dated, August 11, he writes about what he says to his second self after he begins to feel the old Charly following him: “It’s your body and your brain and your life, even though you weren’t able to make much use of it. I don’t have the right to take it away from you. Nobody does. Who’s to say that my light is better than your darkness?” p. 175. This ethical concern is an important element of the novel but is absent altogether from the film.
(6) Emotional growth for Charly, in both the novel and the film, cannot keep pace with his intellectual growth. This focus of interest is presented quite differently in the two mediums. The novel covers the conundrum in journal entries scattered throughout the work; the film telescopes the issue in a montage of scenes designed to show, quickly, Charly’s movement through adolescence to young adulthood and finally to maturation. In the journal entry dated April 14, Charly is warned by the psychiatrist in charge of monitoring his mental health that he should learn about himself so that he would be able to understand himself. The doctor says, “The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have, Charly. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth.” p. 33. This is shown in the film, rather than told outright, by Charly’s behavior in relation to Alice Kinnian. His romantic advances toward her, which amount to assault and provoke her to call him a moron in self-defense, clearly illustrate how Charly cannot handle his feelings. Charly grows increasingly temperamental and arrogant. He loses his humility.
(7) Another focus of interest explored in the novel but presented only vaguely in the film is the nature of friendship and relationships with other people in general. In his journal entry of March 30, Charly says that he feels sorry for Algernon, the mouse, who is alone in his cage and is made to run mazes by himself. Charly worries because the mouse “has no friends.” p. 24.
Charly refers to friendship in several journal entries, and the film makes it clear that he values his friends at work. The audience, however, sees the behavior of the men Charly considers friends as cruel; their friendship is a ruse. Charly notes in his journal dated May 20, “This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I knew and loved, driven me out of the bakery. Now I am more alone than ever before.” p. 78.
(8) In his August 11 journal entry, Charly writes, “Intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered with human affection isn’t worth a damn.” p. 173. In his conversation with one of the scientists involved in his case study, as noted in the August 11 entry, Charly writes, “Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts, I said. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love.” Ibid.
Charly wonders about how people learn to relate to one another. In his journal entry dated May 1, Charly asks: “How does a person go about learning how to act toward another person? How does a man learn how to behave toward a woman?” p. 58. The novel utilizes Fay, a woman Charly meets in his apartment building after he absconds with Algernon, to teach him the skills required to maintain a romantic relationship; the film uses visuals in the montage to hint at the same result.
(9) Compassion for mentally challenged people is another focus of interest that appears in both the film and the novel. Charly’s compassion is shown in both. Each employs the scene, though changed considerably in the film, that shows a clumsy bus boy, apparently developmentally disabled, who is ridiculed when he spills a tray of glasses. In his journal entry dated June 24, Charly writes that he grew enraged and yelled at all of the people who were laughing at the boy: “Shut up! Leave him alone! He can’t understand. He can’t help what he is . . . but for God’s sake, have some respect! He’s a human being!” p. 138.
(10) Both film and novel suggest that with increased intelligence, Charly loses his humility and his compassion and tolerance for others. Though presented differently, both works show Charly regaining these values. In his journal entry dated August 11, Charly writes: “I was seeing myself as I had become…I was an arrogant, self-centered bastard. Unlike Charly, I was incapable of making friends or thinking about other people and their problems.” p. 176. This journal entry details how Charly drank too much at a party and told the assembled scientists just what he thought of them. This equates, roughly, with the scene in the film in which Charly faces an audience at an important gathering of scientists and answers their questions with a negative and foreboding vision of what is to become of society. Both the party scene, as told in the journal, and the convention scene, shown on film, indicate that increased intelligence had become a burden for Charly. These scenes occur just as it becomes apparent that the growth in brainpower evident in the test mouse, Algernon, is impermanent. It will be reversed. Charly will once again be the Charly we met early in the film and in the novel. He will once again become a “moron” but he will also be happier.
In keeping with the student-centered classroom, students who have read the novel and seen the film can be asked to develop topics for essays in which they will compare aspects the two works. If students have trouble developing their own topics, teachers can suggest the essay prompts set out below. Teacher and students working together can develop a rubric for the essays. Peer review is important. Drafts and final papers should be read and assessed for compliance with the rubric by at least two other students. Then, at the end of the process, students should nominate papers to be read to the entire classroom. At this point, more criticism, positive and negative, can be elicited from the class and the teacher can join by offering suggestions for changes that would improve both the essays being read and the work done by individuals who were not selected to read aloud. Final papers can be submitted after more opportunity to rewrite has been given. The teacher reads only the final product.
Prompts:
TEACHER AS FACILITATOR: The teacher’s role in a student-centered lesson is to: (1) solicit student input and guide the class in setting goals and standards for the assignment; (2) provide the opportunity for students to select relevant topics in the subject area, guide students in the selection of topics, and provide guidance if students have difficulty in selecting topics; (3) organize student activities which will monitor the research process; (4) provide guidance, if necessary, in the research process; (5) organize the method by which students will evaluate their own performance or the performance of their peers; and (6) assign a final grade. Teachers can convert any of the steps above to a teacher-centered approach by eliminating the student input.
For middle school classes, teachers might try developing a list of questions for students to use to evaluate their preparation and their presentations. For the students, these questions would take the place of the rubric. The responses to the questions can be handed in on the day of the presentation. Here are a few suggested questions.
ADDITIONAL IN-DEPTH TOPIC FOR RESEARCH FOR TOPIC #1:
What is the history of legislation dealing with mentally disabled persons? What is its function? How does it impact the lives of mentally disabled people?
ADDITIONAL IN-DEPTH TOPIC FOR RESEARCH FOR TOPIC #3:
What are the arguments put forth in support of the assertion that intelligence tests are culturally biased? What are the refutations to those arguments? Be sure to address court decisions relating to this issue.
ADDITIONAL IN-DEPTH TOPIC FOR RESEARCH FOR TOPIC #4:
Detail examples from each category of causes of mental disabilities and explain what steps have been taken, through scientific, social or environmental inquiry, to help eliminate the causes.
ADDITIONAL IN-DEPTH TOPIC FOR RESEARCH FOR TOPIC #5:
Research social service agencies and educational facilities in your area to show how mentally disabled people receive help in each of these categories.
ADDITIONAL IN-DEPTH TOPIC FOR RESEARCH FOR TOPIC #7:
Research social service agencies and educational facilities in your area to show how persons suffering from the different levels of mental disability are provided with assistance.
Alternative Teacher-Centered Format of Instruction: Student-centered learning, while it can be extremely effective, takes time. For the more traditional teacher-centered method of instruction, teachers can present information through lecture, direct questions, and expository essays. A lecture presenting the facts of mental retardation can easily be developed from the information provided to help teachers as facilitators.
In lesson plans that use the “Into/Through/Beyond” framework, the “THROUGH” section helps students comprehend, explore and master the skills or knowledge covered by the lesson. In schools which teach a standards-based curriculum, the “THROUGH” relates directly to the applicable standards.
Suggestions for a Student-Centered Lesson Using the Short Story, the Book, or the Movie
When students investigate basic facts about developmental disability, their appreciation for the film, the novel, and the short story will increase. This provides opportunities for teachers to become facilitators for student-centered learning experiences. The following questions can be assigned to students working alone, in pairs, or in groups. Students will then deliver the results of their research in a presentation to the entire class.
Students can develop their own topics or select from the list of topics set out below.
1. What percent of the population is considered developmentally disabled and how is developmental disability defined?
Notes for the teacher as facilitator: Depending on the definition, one to three percent of the population is mentally disabled. DSM-IV, p. 46.
There are several definitions of mental retardation. One definition is: “significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” 34 Code of Federal Regulations § 300.7. A technical definition, found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, which estimates that 1% of the population suffers from a developmental disability, has three criteria.
Criterion #1: Significantly sub-average intellectual functioning which is shown by an IQ of approximately 70 or below;
Criterion #2: Deficits or impairments in the person’s effectiveness in meeting the standards expected by the person’s cultural group for the person’s specific age in at least two of the following areas:
Criterion #3: Onset before the age of 18 years. (When these symptoms are discovered in people older than 18 who didn’t have them before, it is called dementia.) Source: American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association (hereinafter “DSM-IV”), p. 41.
2. developmental disability is determined in part by results of an IQ test. What do IQ tests measure?
Notes for the teacher as facilitator: Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests measure an intelligence quotient rather than a mental age. The test is composed of verbal and non-verbal questions. The questions involve:
3. What are some of the problems with IQ testing?
Notes for the teacher as facilitator: Some argue that intelligence tests are subject to bias and that the tests do not measure attributes valued by non-mainstream groups. Studies indicate that questions on the IQ tests require test-takers to have information that is esoteric or more available to some ethnic groups than to others
There are several sample tests on the Internet that demonstrate the cultural bias of IQ tests. Suggest that students look at The Original Australian Intelligence Test and focus on the following question: “You are out in the bush with your wife and young children and you are all hungry. You have a rifle and bullets. You see three animals all within range – a young emu, a large kangaroo, and a small female wallaby. Which should you shoot for food?” A serious effort that showed the cultural bias of IQ tests is The Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity. In the 1970s, black students scored consistently higher on this test of symbolic reasoning than did white students.
4. What are some of the most common causes of developmental disability?
Notes for the teacher as facilitator:
5. What are the effects, if any, of socio-economic factors in causing mental retardation?
Notes for the teacher as facilitator:
Poverty and cultural deprivation increase the risk of mental retardation from other factors including malnutrition, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, lead paint poisoning, premature birth, and inadequate medical care. When both parents are poorly educated, they are less likely than more advantaged parents to provide children with frequent stimulating parental interaction such as engaging in animated imaginative conversations, reading stories, telling stories, placing children in stimulating environments etc. Research suggests that under stimulation during infancy and early childhood can cause irreversible brain damage. Biological causes of mental retardation, such as Down’s Syndrome, do not vary along class lines. DSM-IV, p. 46 and
6. What are some of the limitations faced by developmentally disabled persons?
Notes for teacher as facilitator:
Daily living difficulties, such as those associated with housing, transportation, paying bills, taking care of chores, etc.;
Communication problems that may result in being misunderstood or may cause the inability to make needs or desires known to others; and
Social adaptive skills such as getting along with neighbors or co-workers or family members and the ability to make and sustain relationships in general.
7. What are the levels of developmental disability and their defining characteristics?
Notes for teacher as facilitator:
8. What kinds of treatment programs are available for developmentally disabled persons?
Notes for the teacher as facilitator: Most of the treatments available for developmentally disabled person center on education and training. Schools and other institutions provide opportunities for the disabled to reach their maximum potential. As of now, there is no treatment, nor any amount of education that can develop the skills of developmentally disabled people any further than their innate capabilities allow.
The school system, working under federal mandate, is required to provide the best possible education for all persons of any intellectual level. In recent years, special education departments at most public schools, staffed by counselors and highly trained personnel, including psychologists, follow rigorous guidelines in order to serve their disabled students.
Training facilities, public and private, help developmentally disabled individuals learn the social and personal skills required in order to maintain a job or a fulfilling life. Although most developmentally disabled persons need intermittent support, state, and private institutions throughout the nation accommodate those persons who need significant or pervasive care.
9. In 2006, members of the American Association on Mental Retardation voted to change the name of the organization. What is it now called? Why do you think they changed their name?
Notes for teacher as facilitator: The new name is “The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.” The name was changed because the term “retarded” and its derivative “retardation” were reviewed as demeaning and pejorative which would trigger prejudice against persons regarded as “retarded.”
Have the class read the book, read the short story, or watch the movie. The following additional activities are offered as part of the “Through” section of the lesson: Discussion Questions; Debates, Persuasive Essays, Expository Essays, and Presentations.
Should you wish to continue using a student-centered approach, the discussion questions are best addressed in groups with responses presented orally for further argument or discussion. Consider having a student from the group doing the presentation lead the subsequent class discussion. For generic questions arranged by the elements and devices of fiction, see TWM’s Discussion Questions For Use With Any Film That Is A Work of Fiction.
The following discussion questions focus on the movie. They differ from the questions seeking to front-load information because there are few right or wrong answers; there are only weak or strong answers, depending upon the level of support offered or the logic used in the presentation of the argument.
1. Charly is seen in the opening moments of the film playing in a park. At the film’s end, Charly is caught in a still shot on a swing back in the playground. In both scenes, he looks happy. What is the point the director is trying to make about Charly in these opening and closing shots? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: Although Charly was developmentally disabled prior to the surgery, he was happy and enjoyed life. While he was a genius, he suffered from problems with social adjustment, conflicts with the scientists who managed the experiment, and disillusionment with society. Once Charly returns to his former self, these are gone; he is, once again, happy. This suggests that intelligence is not all there is to life.
2. Charly takes a good deal of teasing from his friends at work. Using examples from the film, determine whether this type of teasing is cruel or simply a part of the good-natured give and take common to friendship. Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: Charly experiences both kinds of teasing. He sees the humor in the locker full of rising dough and plays up to his fellow employees. On one occasion, Charly is left standing on the street corner waiting for snow. This joke is worse than the others because Charly is alone and does not have the opportunity to get in on the humor. Malicious, joyless teasing occurs when the person doing the teasing laughs, while the victim of the jest is hurt.
3. Charly holds onto his rabbit’s foot hoping it will bring him luck in his race against Algernon. Under what circumstances do people rely on luck? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: Luck is what people use to gain a sense of control in a situation they believe may be out of their hands. Charly is limited by his brain function; he knows this and feels he is going to need more than his own mind to beat Algernon.
4. When Charly is able to remember the instructions to operate the dough machine at the bakery, one friend is happy for him, and another is not. What accounts for the differences in these two responses? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: One friend felt happy because he was not in competition with Charly; Charly’s success did not diminish this friend in any way. The other friend, however, had taken a long time to learn the dough machine procedure that Charly was able to get with only one set of instructions. This friend felt diminished; he felt inferior to someone he had seen as a “moron.”
5. The montage scene, showing Charly riding a motorcycle, dancing with women, and generally behaving like a teenager, is interspersed with images of Alice Kinnian walking and reading. What is meant by this combination of shots? What is the director trying to say? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: Alice Kinnian cares for Charly and knows that he needs to experience adolescence which, to the director of this film, includes all the activities described in this montage. The director shows Charly going through these experiences while Alice patiently waits for him to mature.
6. Why does Charly help the mentally handicapped busboy at the restaurant? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: Charly empathizes with the busboy and knows that before his operation, similar experiences had happened to him. Charly also knows that his increase in intelligence may not be permanent. Charly helps the young man pick up the dropped glasses in an effort to show the patrons in the restaurant the cruelty of their ridiculing laughter.
7. At the convention, Charly faces an audience of scientists interested in his case and is asked to comment on a variety of social issues. What does Charly say? What was the tone he uses in his answers, and what do his comments tell us about how Charly has come to see life? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: With a humorless and bitter tone, Charly says he sees:
Charly’s comments show that he has become cynical and discouraged. His increase in intelligence has caused a loss of innocence, and he experiences despair when he views the state of the modern world.
9. When Charly understands that he cannot stop the process that will return him to his former self, how does he respond? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: At first, Charly tries to flee; he runs away, chased by the old image of himself. He becomes depressed but he pulls himself out of it and begins to use his considerable brainpower to seek a solution to the problem. He stays up for hours working with computers to find out what went wrong but finds only that the decline in his intelligence is inevitable. Charly is very depressed about this but, eventually, he accepts the inevitable.
10. Should Charly have taken Miss Kinnian’s offer to marry him or was he right to send her away? Notes to assist in facilitating strong responses: Marriage is a union of two people to care for each other, not an exercise in self-sacrifice. Charly was right not to marry Miss Kinnian. Spending her life taking care of a developmentally disabled man based on memories of what he was like when he was brilliant was not what Charly wanted for Miss Kinnian. Sending her away was a very loving thing to do.
Debates are always student-centered as the teacher takes a facilitating role in the process. Moderators can be students chosen by fellow students for leadership skills.
Once students have acquired the information from the front-loading, either through lecture or their own research, they will be able to participate in a debate on one of the following resolutions:
Students can be asked to use their skills in literary analysis to address topics relating to the story told by the movie (or the book or short story). If students have trouble selecting topics, teachers can refer to the questions in TWM’s Discussion Questions For Use With Any Film That Is A Work of Fiction or the assignments in Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories, and Plays. Topics specific to “Charly” and Flowers for Algernon are:
Show how the character of Charly changes as he progresses from having an IQ in the seventies to the intelligence of a genius. Be sure to consider how he looks, what he says, what he does, and how he feels, as well as how other characters react to him and what they say to and about him;
Using references to scenes or dialogue, specify three complications that develop in Charly’s life as his intelligence increases; and
Illustrate the film’s central conflict and show how it changes as Charly begins to change. Connect the resolution and denouement to the conflict.
Expository essays can be assigned that address any of the issues raised in the discussion questions or in the front-loading questions. Students can also be asked to research the volunteer opportunities available in their community. From this research, they can be asked to write an essay explaining these opportunities and encouraging fellow students to perform community service at one of these centers.
Any of the information or controversies mentioned in this Guide provide opportunities for students to deliver effective oral presentations to the class. Research should be required, and presenters should be prepared to answer any questions raised among their listeners. Students should be encouraged to use visuals, realia, and comprehension aides in their presentations
Discussion Question
Discuss this question in class or assign it as a topic for an essay using the procedures outlined above for Persuasive and Expository Essays:
Charly Gordon was the subject of a risky scientific experiment. He consented to it, and his relatives gave their consent. But what about very intelligent animals who are used in scientific experiments? Chimpanzees form complex personal relationships, have strong family relationships, mourn their dead, etc. The DNA of chimps is almost identical to the DNA of human beings. 98% of human DNA is identical to Chimp DNA. Many people believe that experiments on any sentient animals are unethical, and many others would limit this experimentation to situations in which there is no other alternative. See General Information on Animal Research from the Humane Society of the United States. (1) What is your position on scientific experimentation on chimpanzees? (2) Does this same logic apply to Algernon, the mouse? (3) Does the same logic apply to dissect live animals in biology classes or keeping animals in cages for students to study? (4) Does the story of Charly Gordon provide any insight into the answer to this question?
Activities
1. Students can find community service opportunities with organizations that provide care for developmentally disabled children and adults. There may be on-campus opportunities for tutoring and the like.
2. Students can advocate for change through letters or action when there is a local issue that needs to be addressed.
3. Research on autism, an increasingly common condition in society today, can be presented to the class in an oral report or written as an expository essay.
4. Students can read other novels dealing with mental disabilities, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. This student-friendly book can be assigned for extra credit.
5. Students can be assigned to watch other films on persons with disabilities, such as The Other Sister and The Music Within and then present or write a film review.
After the film has been watched, engage the class in a discussion about the movie.
1. Charly is seen in the opening moments of the film playing in a park. At the film’s end, Charly is caught in a still shot on a swing back in the playground. In both scenes he looks happy. What is the point the director is trying to make about Charly in these opening and closing shots?
Suggested Response:
Although Charly was developmentally disabled prior to the surgery, he was happy and enjoyed life. When he was a genius, he suffered from problems with social adjustment, conflicts with the scientists who managed the experiment, and disillusionment with society. Once Charly returns to his former self, these are gone; he is, once again, happy. This suggests that intelligence is not all there is to life.
2. During the experiment, Charly,s emotional growth cannot keep pace with his intellectual growth. What problems does this cause?
Suggested Response:
Charly’s romantic advances amount to assault, he becomes increasingly temperamental and arrogant, and he loses his humility. Students should offer evidence from the film to support these judgments.
3. Should Charly have taken Miss Kinnian’s offer to marry him or was he right to send her away?
Suggested Response:
Answers will vary. Some will argue that Charly was right not to marry Miss Kinnian who would have to spend her life taking care of a developmentally disabled man based on memories of what he was like when he was brilliant. Others may have different opinions and suggest that Charley is still lovable on many levels.
See Discussion Questions For Use With Any Film That Is A Work of Fiction and specific questions in the Student-Centered Lesson Planning Materials provided with this Learning Guide.
1. See questions 1 – 9 in the INTO Section of the student-centered lesson planning materials and discussion questions # 2, 3 6 and 8 in the THROUGH Section of those materials.
2. What was one of Charly’s best coping strategies before the operation?
Suggested Response:
It was his good humor and his capacity to see things in their best light, even if he didn’t understand them. This allowed him to ignore the cruel jokes that his “friends” at the bakery perpetrated on him.
3. Before the operation, would you have classified Charly as mildly mentally disabled or severely mentally disabled? Explain your reasoning.
Suggested Response:
Charly was probably mildly mentally disabled with some learning disabilities such as dyslexia. He is able to read simple texts, but his spelling is very poor. He can live independently.
4. Was Charly Gordon courageous?
Suggested Response:
There is no one correct answer but the stronger answer is “yes”. Charly lived with good humor in a world in which there was a lot that he didn’t understand. He was willing to undergo a dangerous operation on his brain to get something he wanted, intelligence.
Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the use of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below.
(Do what you are supposed to do; Persevere: keep on trying!; Always do your best; Use self-control; Be self-disciplined; Think before you act — consider the consequences; Be accountable for your choices)
See question #9 above.
(Be kind; Be compassionate and show you care; Express gratitude; Forgive others; Help people in need)
See questions #2, #6 and #10 above.
Any of the discussion questions can serve as a writing prompt. Additional assignments include:
1. If you have read Daniel Keyes’ novel, Flowers for Algernon, and have seen the film, write an essay in which you determine whether or not the changes in the film advance the themes of the novel or deter the viewers from a full understanding of the Keyes’ ideas. Refer specifically to scenes in the film and to journal entries in the novel to make your points.
2. Charly’s story raises the question of the morality of changing a person to fit a social norm as opposed to valuing his or her life as it is. Research the current trend toward medicating students in order to enable them to better fit into the school system. Find information about the numbers of students given drugs to help them concentrate or perform better on tests or to lose their shyness or any other of the number of reasons they are now medicated. Write an informative essay, ending with your opinion about this trend.
3. Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests measure intelligence rather than a mental age. Some argue that intelligence tests are subject to bias and that the tests do not measure attributes valued by non-mainstream groups. Research the controversy about IQ tests and present your findings to the class. You may want to enliven the presentation with sample questions using The Original Australian Intelligence Test, The Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity, and The Redden-Simons Rap Test. Look up the work of Jennifer Schobert and Stephen Jay Gould for clarity about the problems with IQ tests.
Multimedia: Anchor Standard #7 for Reading (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). (The three Anchor Standards read: “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media, including visually and quantitatively as well as in words.”) CCSS pp. 35 & 60. See also Anchor Standard # 2 for ELA Speaking and Listening, CCSS pg. 48.
Reading: Anchor Standards #s 1, 2, 7 and 8 for Reading and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 35 & 60.
Writing: Anchor Standards #s 1 – 5 and 7- 10 for Writing and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 41 & 63.
Speaking and Listening: Anchor Standards #s 1 – 3 (for ELA classes). CCSS pg. 48.
Not all assignments reach all Anchor Standards. Teachers are encouraged to review the specific standards to make sure that over the term all standards are met.
This Learning Guide was written by Mary RedClay and James Frieden and was Last updated on April 7, 2010.