Word: sophia
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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...
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION in the literal sense is clearly required to educate Sophia. It will take more than a passing effort for her ever to learn, for example, to count to three. No teacher has been willing to devote himself to the cause and risk catching the curse himself. The worst part is that the residents have become so frustrated by their incapacity to link thoughts coherently that they almost blame themselves for their ignorance...
...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...