Grace Pekel An extremely large, physically imposing black seventeen year old, Michael Oher, grew up in the projects in Memphis. No longer living with his drug addicted mother, he runs away from foster cares, sleeping where ever else he can. Stumbling upon Michael, Coach Burt Cotton helps Michael get accepted into an exclusive private school, Wingate Christian School, with high interests in his size and movement for the football team. After Michael starts attending classes at Wingate, most of his teachers believe he is unteachable, except his science teacher, Mrs. Boswell, who begins to understand that he learns in a different way. Caucasian and staunch Republican Leigh Anne Tuohy - mother of two Wingate students, believing he is homeless, invites Michael to stay in the Tuohy's upscale home for the night. That one night slowly extends into both time and emotion as the Tuohys begin to treat Michael like one of the family and vice versa. Part of that emotional investment for Leigh Anne is fully understanding Michael as a person so that he can fulfill his potential as a human being as well as the opportunities seen initially by Coach Cotton on the football team. Potential problems include Michael's poor academic standing which may prohibit him from participating in extracurricular activities at the school, his learning disability which may extend to other aspects of his life beyond his schooling, whether he actually can play football, and authorities questioning Leigh Anne and all the Tuohy's motivations in inviting Michael into their home and family. Throughout this movie multiple social issues are being presented:
Age
Race
Social Status
Wealth/Poverty
Gender
In “The Bind Side”, one of the social status’s the stood out the most to me was how the social status of both Michael and Leigh created a lot of conflict. Michael coming from the projects gave almost all the teachers at Wingate Christian School a lack of faith in his learning and comprehension abilities, seeing his GPA of .6 did not help or comparing him to the majority of students attending. In real life there are multiple situations similar to this, looking at high slandered private schools, most attendants come from wealthy and privileged families. Good or bad there are major differences that can be assumed when comparing the backgrounds and environments of where a child is raised. Leigh Tuohy faced judgment from friends who were not understanding in how she could allow a big and tall black man from the projects into her home, especially with her teen daughter. They ask, “Is this one of your new projects?”, laughing, “…a project for the projects!” Leigh was also in question that her motives were purely to help the college her family supported and donated to. These types of issues