Word: leon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...residents of Kulyenchikov are not just stupid. They're idiots. The fish vendor sells carnations as haddock and the doctor can't read his own eye chart. The star pupil, whom the newest teacher, Leon Tulchinsky must cure, just learned to sit down a few days ago. Sophia is 18 years old. This would be just another pointless Simon situation commedy--a collection of Amelia Bedelia jokes, as one viewer put it--if it weren't for the necessity of affirmative action...
...fact is that neither Blacks nor the residents of Kulyenchikov caused their own problems. It was society that imposed obstacles to education of American minorities, and society must now make up for lost time. The problem is that Leon and American institutions have been going about affirmative action for the wrong reasons...
...first, Leon chooses to try to help Sophia only because she's beautiful. He believes, correctly, that she will marry him if he succeeds. But if their relationship continues on the basis of self-interest, theirs would be an eventually fading romance. In the same way, if minority education is accelerated as a pacifier of social unrest, Americans will never possess the determination which is needed to cure their curse...
...Leon, in fact, soon realizes that Sophia's physical attraction is not a sufficient motive to risk catching the curse himself. He becomes frustrated and decides to leave the village. Today, in comparison, we are on the verge of giving up our own affirmative action effort because of problems within the process...
...realization of his bonds to all the citizens in addition to his sexual attraction to Sophia finally leads Leon back to Kulyenchikov. Leon grows to love the residents as individuals. As long as he thinks the ignorant are freaks, he cannot begin to help them...