By Rebeca Perez
Introduction
“Escape is one of the main functions of fairy stories”, writes JRR Tolkien in his essay, “On Fairy Stories”. What better story exemplifies escape than Megamind, a story about the hero’s escape from the school-to-prison pipeline? The movie Megamind, directed by Tom McGrath, follows the titular character, a blue alien who escaped his home planet as a baby when it was sucked into a black hole, as he is pushed out of school and into a life of supervillainy. After finally defeating his arch-nemesis, Metroman, he realizes that something is missing in his life and trains a new hero, to fight. But when Titan goes rogue, Megamind must step up and become the hero the city needs. The fairytale may be fictional, but the School to Prison Pipeline is a real systemic issue affecting marginalized students all over the country. While Megamind was able to escape from the cycle of incarceration, many real people who experience the school-to-prison pipeline are not. Furthermore, escaping the pipeline is not enough, we must dismantle the pipeline with adequate funding for schools, especially in low-income and neighborhoods of color, ensure teachers and administrators are not biased and represent the student body, and end ‘zero tolerance’ policies in schools.
Megamind as a Fairytale
While on the surface, Megamind may not seem like a fairytale, it absolutely is. In his essay “On Fairy Stories”, JRR Tolkien gives a series of criteria he believes distinguish fairytales from other kinds of tales, the vast majority of which can be applied to Megamind. As a broad definition, Tolkien writes, “a “fairy-story” is one which touches on or uses Faerie, whatever its own main purpose may be: satire, adventure, morality, fantasy. Faerie itself may perhaps most nearly be translated by Magic—but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from the vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific, magician.” (Tolkien, 5). He also goes on to add that even if the story is satirical, the one thing it must take seriously is magic. Magic can be found in Megamind in the form of Metroman’s superpowers, which grant him super strength, along with the ability to fly, and shoot lasers from his eyes. Megamind also has a binky his parents gave to him as he escaped his home planet, which shoots out electricity that he uses to power his various inventions. While the movie is meant to be a satire of superhero origin stories, their powers, the magic found in the story, are not satirical.
Furthermore, Tolkien requires that the story must not take place in the real world to be considered a fairytale. When explaining why a travelers’ tale is not a fairytale he says, “Such tales report many marvels, but they are marvels to be seen in this mortal world in some region of our own time and space; distance alone conceals them.” (Tolkien, 6). Again, Megamind qualifies as a fairytale since it takes place in the fictional Metro City. Additionally, Megamind and his nemesis Metroman are both from neighboring fictional planets that are sucked into a black hole. Since none of these places exist in the real world, Megamind meets Tolkien’s requirements.
Finally, an integral aspect of a fairytale according to Tolkien is its happy ending. He writes “The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” (Tolkien, 33). This “turn” is ingrained in fairytales and appears in Megamind. When Megamind is falling to his death and it seems like the false hero turned villain, Titan, will defeat him and take his love-interest Roxanne (the princess) and take over Metro City the story turns. Megamind uses his dehydration gun on himself and lands in a fountain, rehydrating himself between Titan and Roxane and taking Titan’s powers, defeating him for good. With his victory, Megamind wins the love of Roxane and the adoration of the city, but the true happy ending is him leaving behind a life of villainy, finally escaping the school-to-prison pipeline.
The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Megamind and Beyond
Now that we’ve established that Megamind is a fairytale, through the presence of magic, setting, and happy ending, we can discuss the presence of the school-to-prison pipeline in the story. The school-to-prison pipeline, or STPP, is defined by the NAACP Legal Defense fund in the book The School to Prison Pipeline: The Role of Culture and Discipline in Schools as “funneling of students out of school and into the streets and the juvenile correction system [perpetuating] a cycle known as the ‘School-to-Prison-Pipeline’, depriving children and youth of meaningful opportunities for education, future employment, and participation in our democracy” (Okilwa et al., 6). Many aspects of our public education system contribute to this pipeline, most notably underfunded and under resourced schools, inherent discrimination in classroom discipline, and disciplinary practices that disrupt students’ education and erode their trust in the institutions meant to help them succeed, all of which are present in Megamind.
The first aspect of the school-to-prison pipeline present in Megamind is underfunded schools. The book, The School to Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform, explains how detrimental under-resourced schools can be to children’s academic development. “Students in underresourced schools and districts, with too little access to experienced and highly qualified educators, with curriculum resources that do not prepare them for college, with inadequate exposure to the arts, and in facilities that are unsafe and poorly equipped and have too few early intervention programs for struggling students, are at high risk of academic failure.” (Kim et al., 9). When kids don’t have access to the resources they need to develop learning skills, they are set up for failure in academic settings, especially compared to students who did have access to those necessary resources. The problem of underfunded schools tends to be especially prevalent in school districts “marked by concentrated poverty and racial isolation” (Kim, 9). Education is the pathway to escaping poverty, but schools in areas of high poverty or communities of color are more likely to have inadequate schools, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and the STPP.
This problem is also present in Megamind. At the beginning of the movie, we see baby Megamind and baby Metroman fleeing their destroyed planets and heading to their new worlds. Despite landing in the same city, they couldn’t have ended up in more different circumstances. While Metroman lands in a large mansion and is welcomed with open arms by his white wealthy family, Megamind lands in a prison. All the early education Megamind receives is taught by the other prisoners, as seen in a scene where they hold up flashcards to teach him right, criminals, from wrong, police officers. Obviously, this early education is inadequate and doesn’t prepare him for future academic success. While we don’t see the early education Metroman receives, we can assume based on his privileged background that he received top-tier education or, at the very least, better education than being taught by prisoners as Megamind was.
To combat this aspect of the school-to-prison pipeline, we must advocate for better funding and resources for all schools, especially those that serve communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. Providing better resources, including qualified teachers, up-to-date educational materials, and arts and extracurricular programs, as well as early intervention programs to help struggling students early, will provide these students with more high-quality education, better preparing them for future success and create a path to escape the cycle of poverty and the school-to-prison pipeline.
Another aspect of the school-to-prison pipeline present in Megamind is the inherent discrimination minoritized students face in disciplinary actions. Okilwa and Kim agree that minoritized students, including Black, Latino, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), immigrant, and low-income students, are more likely to be referred, suspended, expelled, and arrested while in school and are more likely to be academically impacted by the disciplinary actions they endure. Additionally, many students fall under more than one of these categories. These minoritized students face disproportionate disciplinary actions compared to white students, even for similar behavior. For example, African American students are twice as likely to be referred to the office for problem behavior than their white peers in elementary school, and this figure jumps to 4 times more likely in middle school (Okilwa, 3). While being referred to the office may seem like a small issue, the disproportion of minoritized students facing harsher punishments only worsens as the severity of the disciplinary action increases. “When white youth and African American youth are charged for the same offense, African American youth with no prior admissions are six times more likely to be incarcerated in public facilities than white youth with the same background; Latino youth are three times more likely than white youth to be incarcerated.” (Kim, 35). Not only are minoritized students more likely to face disciplinary actions within schools, but they are also more likely to face disciplinary actions in the juvenile justice system, pushing them out of schools and directly into state facilities while they are still children. Furthermore, Okilwa claims “Some of the highest rates of racially disproportionate discipline are found in states with the lowest minority populations, where the disconnect between white teachers and black students is potentially the greatest.” (4). The disconnect between students of color and their white teachers not only makes it more difficult for students to engage with educational materials but also white teachers often feel more threatened by boys of color, contributing to their disproportionate discipline. Minoritized students, including students of color, low-income, and CLD students, are more likely to face disciplinary actions, both within the school system and the juvenile justice system, especially when there is a large disconnect between the white teacher and minoritized students.
In the story, Megamind is a minoritized student and falls into nearly all the categories listed. While he isn’t explicitly Black or Latino, his blue skin clearly sets him apart from the other students and represents that he is a student of color. Additionally, Megamind has a different accent than the other students, pronouncing school as “shool” and Metro City as “Metrocity”, making him culturally and linguistically diverse. He is also an immigrant, coming from a completely different planet than the other students. Finally, Megamind is raised in a prison, with no money to his name, making him a low-income student. All of these contribute to Megamind’s discrimination in the classroom, further perpetuated by his white teacher and majority white class. While Metroman is also an immigrant, he doesn’t face the same challenges Megamind does because he is able to assimilate more easily since he is white and has wealthy parents.
To combat this aspect of the school-to-prison pipeline, Okilwa offers a few solutions including professional development for teachers and administrators that include race, racism, and culturally responsive pedagogy, and “students own-race teacher-pairing”. First, professional development for teachers and administrators is crucial to dismantling the pipeline. These should include talks about how race and racism affect students in the classroom as well as how discipline and pedagogical practices contribute to the STPP. Additionally, teachers should include culturally responsive pedagogy to bridge the gap between the learning processes in school and the experiences of marginalized students. These practices will help increase academic engagement, which alleviates problem behaviors. Finally, Okilwa advocates for “student’s own-race teacher-pairing”. This system attempts to pair marginalized students with a teacher of their race and its advocates “point to the role model effect and the evidence that teacher’s perceptions have an effect on student outcome” (Okilwa, 7). The role model theory claims that students perform better when their teachers look like them or are like them, so they can use them as positive role models and adopt more ambitious goals. Additionally, a marginalized teacher is less likely to view minoritized students as a threat, hopefully minimizing the inherent discrimination these students often face. However, with the vast majority of teachers being white women, this system isn’t very widely applicable so Okilwa offers that school administrators should focus on hiring teachers with a focus on social justice to combat these issues.
Additionally, many disciplinary practices frequently used by schools can be incredibly detrimental to the educational development of students, especially zero-tolerance policies and suspension or expulsion. Zero-tolerance policies are policies that have mandated consequences for certain misbehaviors and don’t take into consideration any of the contexts of the situation. They are meant to “deal out severe punishment for all offenses, no matter how minor, ostensibly in an effort to treat all offenders equally in the spirit of fairness and intolerance of rule-breaking” (Okilwa, 4). Okilwa goes on to say “Clearly, zero tolerance policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules (more so for students of color), and the presence of police officers in schools has made the transition from student (school) to criminal (juvenile justice system) quite seamless.” (5). While they may be implemented to promote “fairness”, these policies are not equally applied. Minoritized students are more likely to face the consequences of these zero-tolerance policies than their white counterparts. This coupled with increasing police presence in schools facilitates the pipeline and pushes more and more marginalized students into the criminal justice system.
These policies are still harmful even if they don’t lead students directly into juvenile detention. Suspension and expulsion are also incredibly destructive to students’ development. “Exclusion from the classroom, for even a few days, disrupts a child’s education and may escalate misbehavior by removing the child from a structured environment and giving him or her increased time and opportunity to get into trouble.” (Kim, 78). Taking students out of the classroom and separating them from their classmates and the structure of school often leads to more trouble than if they would have been left in the classroom. Kim goes on to say, “Studies show that a child who has been suspended is more likely to be retained in his or her grade, to drop out, to commit a crime, and to end up incarcerated as an adult.” (78). Not only are these practices harmful to students’ short-term educational development, but they can also have lasting effects and are often the very things that push students towards worse behaviors and into the juvenile justice system.
Throughout the opening sequence of the movie, we see Megamind facing discrimination and disproportionate disciplinary practices in school. First, Metroman uses his laser eyes to make popcorn for the class and is met with cheers and praise from the students and the teachers. However, when Megamind also tries to use his magic binky to make popcorn for the class it goes slightly awry. The popcorn is set on fire and despite Megamind quickly extinguishing it, he is still punished and sent to time out in the corner. A little later all the kids are seen choosing teams for a game, but it turns out that all the students are on one team, except Megamind and the game is to throw the balls at him. When Megamind creates a helmet with his binky to protect himself from the abuse, the helmet sends the balls flying around the schoolyard, hitting other students, and nearly hitting the teacher. Despite Megamind only trying to protect himself, he is punished, while Metroman is rewarded for stopping Megamind’s bad behavior.
These disproportionate punishments hinder Megamind’s educational development and lead him directly to a life of villainy. Megamind is often punished with a time-out, which while not as harsh, is very similar to suspension as it removes him from the learning environment and isolates him from his peers. Megamind himself says “While they were learning the itsy-bitsy spider, I was learning how to dehydrate animate objects and rehydrate them at will” (Megamind, 4:35) Because of his frequent punishments he was excluded from learning with the other students and missed out on valuable instructional time. Instead, he was left on his own, allowing him to get into more trouble. Eventually, the constant punishments and antagonization cement the idea in Megamind’s head that he is inherently a villain and that’s all he’ll ever be. “I was destined to be a supervillain and we were destined to be rivals. The die had been cast and so began an enduring, epic, lifelong career.” (Megamind, 5:35). In his final act of rebellion as a student, he explodes blue paint all over the classroom, teacher, and students. He is promptly expelled and taken directly back to prison, which he would be in and out of throughout the rest of his formative years until he finally learns to be good while fighting Titan.
To combat this aspect of the school-to-prison pipeline, we need to replace zero-tolerance policies in schools with tiered discipline programs, like PBIS. Positive behavioral intervention and support, or PBIS, is an alternative to zero-tolerance policies that takes a tiered approach to discipline. Rather than immediate harsh punishments, even for small infractions, there are three tiers with the harshest punishments reserved only for serious offenses. However, it is crucial that PBIS and other tiered discipline programs must be culturally responsive otherwise minoritized students are often fast-tracked to the third, most severe, tier.
Conclusion
The movie Megamind can be considered a fairytale according to JRR Tolkien’s criteria in his essay “On Fairy Stories”. It features magic in the form of superpowers, takes place in a fictional world, and has a happy ending with Megamind becoming the hero of Metro City. It also deals with the theme of escape, as Megamind escapes from the school-to-prison pipeline, and ultimately becomes a hero. However, it is important to recognize that the real-life issue of the school-to-prison pipeline is a serious and ongoing problem that must be addressed through changes in education policy and support for marginalized students. Overall, Megamind serves as a reminder that fairytales can serve as powerful tools for addressing important issues and providing hope for a better future. When he is expelled, Megamind accepts that he is “destined to be a supervillain” (5:35). However, in the end, he comes to a new realization, “Funny, I guess destiny is not the path given to us but the path we choose for ourselves.” (Megamind, 1:24:17). While he broke out of what he believed was his destiny, his true destiny was hinted at in the very beginning of the movie when his parents say goodbye to him and say, “You are destined for great-” (Megamind, 1:30) before they are cut off. While he may not have been able to decipher what they were saying, it is clear they meant he was destined for greatness, proving that his destiny was never to be a villain. Instead, that false destiny was forced upon him by the school-to-prison pipeline. Similarly, the school-to-prison pipeline imposes a destiny of incarceration on marginalized students who were destined for greatness. They don’t live in a fairytale and may never be free from the cycle of poverty and incarceration. We must dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline to prevent future generations from falling into the cycle.
Works Cited
Kim, Catherine, et al. The School to Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform. New York University Press, 2012.
McGrath, Tom, director. Megamind. Paramount Pictures, 2010.
Okilwa, Nathern S., et al. The School to Prison Pipeline: The Role of Culture and Discipline in School. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017.
Tolkien, JRR. “On Fairy Stories.” Essays Presented to Charles Williams, Oxford University Press, 1947.
