“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”, an academy award nominee, is an inspiring movie based on a real-life story of a Malawian teenager who brightened up his village by planning and constructing a windmill to provide energy. The movie is a depiction of how education can change the world. The movie setting is in Malawi, Africa. It revolves around William Kamkwamba, a curious young schoolboy who finds himself born in poverty, as his family struggles to make ends meet. Soon after, William is forced to drop out of school midyear, and help his family financially by working in the farm.
Despite such hardship and stress, William continues to pursue his passion, which is education. Along with supporting his family on a daily basis, William manages to agree a deal with his teacher to let him into the library and read books. Courtesy of his passion for science, William’s interests lean towards work on electricity production. Given his perseverance to learn and his intellectual ability, he learns how to make a windmill to produce electricity for his village. In spite the lack of support from his family including his stubborn father and the rest of his village, William is able to provide electricity, and fulfill his dream of changing the lives of everyone in his village. William is then awarded a scholarship, and shown to graduate from Dartmouth College.
The story of William is a story of willpower and determination to achieve your goals regardless of support of any kind. In our context, it can be looked at as a story of how education can transform lives in conflict areas like Africa and elsewhere. No matter the situation at hand, education has the power to induce miracles, and lift the community as a whole. Given that poverty restricts children to dream because of the lack of resources, it can also spark the drive in individuals to excel, and achieve their goals. This movie is a timely reminder that governments must ensure that every child is provided opportunities to education, so they can be assisted in achieving such miracles.
Great Post! Your post subtly highlights a fascinating, and oft ignored phenomenon of informal education. Even during the class discussions we attempted to grapple with the prospect of its viability and majorly argued in favor of more structured, formal and state sanctioned initiatives, Yet, as your review of the film details, William, through the help of a teacher who provides access to educational resources, is able to resolve the problem of electricity within his village despite every economic and social setback imaginable. The film, as you have also outlined, marvels at the resistance of a brilliant student who alone resolves a developmental issue yet I beg a query, that despite the film glorifying the pursuit of education, is it not…