Mona Lisa Smile

The school seemed very orderly, strict and conservative. The new art history teacher, Katherine Watson, was nervous upon entering the classroom on her first day. "Be careful in there, the girls can sense fear" a professor mentioned, passing by. On her first day, the all her students intimidated her by memorizing the text. They verbally dictated the descriptions of each slide presented to them. Afterwards, they intentionally left to independent study. Katherine Watson did not let this phase her. She came up with another set of slides the next day and stunned the students. The students were filled with puzzled and confused looks. This amused Katherine Watson because this enabled her to fulfill her role as a teacher. She continued to challenge her students and began to understand them individually. The community and school is surrounded by rules and tradition. There is a "right way of thinking" or a "right way of art." Art, however, is one of those abstract subjects that require creativity and perspective. The concept of "there is no right way of art" is what Katherine Watson is trying to teach. This concept started causing some suspicion among the faculty.  The people believe that there is a right and wrong answer to every question. They avoid change. They want things to stay in order. The issue with contraceptives being distributed by the nurse resulted in the nurse getting fired. Women are expected to get married and have kids. However, Katherine Watson opened another gate.  She views the alternative lives women can choose to take like having a job and waiting to get married. One student chose to accuse Ms. Watson of challenging the "role the girls were born to do" (Mona Lisa Smile). Throughout the movie, the women are expected to be happy with marriage. However, there are a number of affairs and lies going around. The Wellesley College decided to welcome Ms. Watson back for another year, however she declined the offer. She did not want to change and conform. She came to Wellesley to make a difference and she did. She showed the girls the world through a different perspective.