Why Film Studies is both an Awesome and Important College Course by Cameron

Why Film Studies is both an Awesome and Important College Course by Cameron - August 2017 Scholarship Essay

Being a college professor is one of the most important jobs in the world today. You are the youth of America's last line of teaching before they go out into the world. And while all the school leading up to college has taught the students important things, very little of that knowledge is really needed in day to day life. Learning the material you need to survive life is up to your college professors to teach you. For that reason, I don't ever know if I would be able to teach one of the really important classes like business or finance. I would feel too much pressure having the ability to literally give my students the vital tools to succeed, or making them waste a semester learning nothing. If I could teach any college class, I would want it to be an important one, while not being necessary. I would also like the topic of the class to be something I enjoy just as much as my students. That way I could really be passionate about what I teach. I think that the perfect class for me to teach would be film studies.
Ever since I was little I have been interested in film. In how and why movies are made and what makes them special. Over the years that interest has turned into a passion as now I am obsessed with film and hope to go into it as a career one day. That passion I feel would go hand in hand with teaching. I would know exactly which movies to pick and which parts were important. I would have my students see things from a different perspective that you could only pick up on after the fourth or fifth time watching. I would know what interested me, and be able to transfer that interest to the students. Plus I would have the ability to really have deep discussions with them about what the movies true message was. I would just be another student, and that I feel is the best way to teach.
But my class would not be all fun and games. While a lot of people think that just watching a bunch of movies is a waste of time, they are wrong. My mom took a film studies course in college and she still almost 40 years later goes on about how much of an impact it had on her. Many people don't realize that movies are history, and can often tell more about a time period than a book. It is important to learn how horror films like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and westerns like "High Noon" were meant to show the effects that McCarthyism had on the United States. Or how films like "Rocky IV" and "Aliens" were used to bring some patriotism into a Reaganomic America. Or how movies like "Fight Club" and "Office Space" were able to accurately portray the feelings of monotony and existential angst felt by many students in my class. The history of film is just the history of America, taught in a more exciting way. And if I were to be a college professor, I would be honored to teach it.