Theories of Learning -EDUC 340

Exercise #3- Movie

Delaila Medina

Galen University

Mr. Eulalio Torres

June 2, 2023
 “Everyone is born, but not everyone is born the same. Some will grow to be butchers,

bakers, or candlestick makers. Some will only be good at making Jell-O salad. One way or

another, though, every human being is unique, for better or for worse” (Danny DeVito, 1996).

Every person is unique and is molded with the moral values and ethics. The film was adapted

from Roald Dahl which is based on Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson), a gifted little girl that

was adopted. Her distant father (Danny DeVito) and mother (Rhea Perlman). Even worse,

Agatha Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), the school's principal, is a terrifyingly strict bully. Matilda is an

exquisite and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, her parents misunderstood her because she is

very different from their way of living. Through the movie, Matilda learns to develop her

telekinesis power, which she will use to defend her friends from Trunchbull’s Wrath and fight

with her unkind parents. Therefore, an overview of the morals and ethics of each character from

the story will be described.  

In the movie, Mrs. Zinnia desired to have a baby girl, and they adopted a baby who was

randomly called Matilda. Mr. Harry was stingy with his money and saw the expense of caring for

another baby. Moreover, she grew to become an extraordinary child who learnt what a 30 year

old person knew at the age of two. Matilda was a very independent little girl who learnt to do

things by herself without the guidance of an adult. While reading magazines, Matilda began the

exploration of literature and made her walk ten blocks daily to reach the library. She was

enthused with the children's books and devoured each one of them and food that happiness

through reading that which rapidly developed her imagination. Matilda’s storing little minds,

began to grow nurtured by the voices of all those authors. Those books gave Matilda a

comforting and hopeful message: You are not alone. Her dad wanted his son to do a

mathematical addition to figure out the profit he had made. Unfortunately, his son could not
provide the profit, but Matilda astonished everyone with her rapid calculation. Her dad was

angry and was punishing her for being smart. He brought up the first lesson by saying, “When a

person is bad, that person is called for a lesson”. He meant to say, when a child is bad, instead of

saying, when a person is bad, which created a revolutionary idea that parents can be punished

too. Therefore, Matilda implemented the lesson with his own parents to teach a lesson.

Furthermore, Mr. Harry Wormwood is a businessman who is very dishonest and does

illegal things to become wealthy. He uses stolen car parts and tricky ways to make a car work

that would then be sold at a high price. The FBI was getting involved due to his dirty dealings.

Mr. Wormwood mentioned that nobody could get rich by being honest. Matilda knew that doing

dirty dealings is perilous. He compared himself with his daughter and said, “I am Big, your little,

I am smart, your Dumb, and I am right, your wrong.” This indicated that children were given

different treatment and teaching by their parents. He was teaching his child to follow his same

path. His father did not like Matilda's personality and that she dedicated her time to readings

books rather than watching tv.  His father enrolled Matilda at Trunchbull’s School because of the

schools way of disciplining students.  Miss. Agatha Trunchbull is malicious, arrogant, brutal,

dangerous, egotistical, psychopathic, heartless, and cruel. She has great satisfaction in showing

her passionate hate for the children. She was very disrespectful and aggressive to the students

and teachers.  In addition, she tries to maintain a position of power inappropriately.  She sees

violence as the appropriate way of disciplining children and creates a vicious makeshift torture

chamber (which she calls the chokey) in her office. It serves as a place for punishment for those

who do not follow the rules.

her past, she loves her students and everyone around her—even Miss. Jennifer is scared to

approach Miss Trunchbull. She was the one who noticed Matilda’s talent and tried to convey this

to Matilda’s parents and Miss Trunchbull; they refused to acknowledge her abilities. Matilda's

teacher sympathized with the burden of living with a family that did not appreciate her. She is

her the emotional support and guardian. Matilda was a perfect reflection of what Miss. Hunny

went through her childhood when her mother died of natural causes. His father needed a

caretaker for her motherless daughter, and the person was the deceased wife’s sister Agatha

Trunchbull.

In addition, this movie reflects a beautiful message to everyone, regardless of your age.

She did not have her parents support but learnt through her exploration and readings that helped

in constructing her own knowledge. The story teaches students to love reading early on and

guides to nurture your own knowledge. Matilda teaches children to be loving, respectful, caring,

motivated, engaged and passionate about learning. Matilda was given the opportunity to go to

school and appreciated every moment of learning with the classmates. In the movie we can see

that students are developing their own knowledge and are working together to find the answers

to their doubts. The use of punishment is not the solution to grow students in the right path

because they are capable of understanding. In Belize, we have teachers that are like Miss. Hunny

who ensures that the students are learning through the appropriate education. We want teachers

like Miss Hunny who are passionate in teaching. Years ago in Belize, the form of discipline was

through brutal punishment just like Mrs. Trunchbull That was oppressing and traumatizing with

the punishments to discipline the students. Parents are giving more attention to their children’s
needs. In conclusion the movie teaches children to learn to become youth independent at an early

age.