By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—Two generations of  kindergartner Shor Masori's family—his grandparents and his great-grandfather—watched Akeelah and the Bee last night and found ourselves hoping that it will become part of the regular curriculum at his brand new school, Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, because it is so inspirational.

There is not a Jewish character in the movie, yet it seemed to be very Jewish in its teaching that education is the key to success.  Our immigrant experience of coming to the United States, not being able to speak the language, but learning it in school and excelling in our studies, still is very much in our collective Jewish memory. While the three children upon whom we focus in this movie are African-American, Asian-American and Mexican-American, we cannot help but remember the legions of  Litvakers, Galicianers, and other Jews who also walked along similar pathways.

The African-American, Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) 11, went to a school in South Los Angeles where she thought she had to hide the fact that she was smart lest she become a social reject. She was wrong, not only about what she had to do, but also about how her classmates, and in fact her entire community, eventually would react to her successes en route to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Along the way, Keke is befriended by Javier (J.R. Villareal), 12, son of an upwardly mobile Mexican American family living in Woodland Hills.  He is a wonderfully likeable character. Although they must compete, they do so as study partners who encourage and help each other. It's never mentioned in the movie, but there is an unspoken aspiration personified in this friendship: that two often-times competing minority groups in Los Angeles—Mexican-Americans and African-Americans—can surmount their rivalries and work together for the common benefit.

The third member of the trio is a brilliant Chinese-American, Dylan (Sean Michael), 13,  who also lives in Woodland Hills. Akeelah comes to understand that he is so intense and so negative towards his competitors because of the tremendous pressure that his father, Mr. Chiu (Tzi Ma)  puts on him to succeed.  Akeelah doesn't have a father, because he was killed, but she does have a father-figure in her spelling coach, Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), whose own daughter died.  One finds oneself hoping that some romantic interest will be ignited between Dr. Larabee and Akeelah's mother, Tanya (Angela Bassett), but if so, it will have to come in a sequel.  This movie deservedly is all about Akeelah.

To the extent that  Javier and Dylan might be considered by young  movie viewers as possibly representative of their ethnic groups, this film may be problematic, as all stereotyping, whether positive or negative, is destructive. We don't have to worry about that with Akeelah, because many African-Americans are portrayed in the movie, representing a broad spectrum of personalities.  Javier and Dylan are the only Mexican-American and Chinese-American students that viewers meet.

However,  without giving away the ending, let me say that the perceptive Akeelah finds the soft spots in both Dylan and in Mr. Chiu, and many viewers will end up liking them as well.

The movie has been carefully crafted to teach a positive lesson about education.  While not ignoring the pressures and problems that students face, it demonstrates that education and commitment to excellence will help students hurdle almost any obstacle.

Shor's parents—Sandi and Shahar Masori—chose Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School because it is one of those schools that year after year dominates the county science fair, while teaching the highest values of Judaism  They were impressed, as were the three of us who watched the movie last night, that Soille achieves excellence in both its religious and secular curricula.   

Psssst!  Shor! That word is spelled c-u-r-r-i-c-u-l-a.