Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Lesson: Never, ever, ever give up hope.
While serving two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary for a crime he didn’t commit, Andy Dufresne said, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” And while being in high school can sometimes feel like a four-year prison sentence, the movie will teach them that, just like Dufresne, encountering bumps in the road won’t prevent their inevitable escape if they’re not incorrigible pessimists.
127 Hours (2010)
Lesson: Always leave a note.
After adventurer Aaron Ralston failed to let anyone know where he was going, he got trapped in Utah’s Blue John Canyon and was forced to amputate his arm to make it out alive. So leave a note, kids. Or email. Or text. Or tweet. You get the idea. Letting someone know your whereabouts might save your arm — or life — in an emergency.
