and doubt of her own capacities to the public school system, where she is bullied and "her intellectual curiosity is kind of crushed". As such, Akeelah is portrayed as an "undermotivated student", who "[u]nwilling to be stigmatized as a freak or a brainiac," avoids showing her abilities. According to Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe, the film shows "the contradiction gifted students feel in an inhospitable environment." Ann Hornaday from The Washington Post opined that Akeelah's sentence "Why would I want to represent a school that doesn't even have doors on the toilets?" is "one of the film's many subtle critiques of the country's education policies." Writing in the English Journal, Amanda L. Hodges said it suggests a new approach on teaching with the "50,000 coaches" part; she declared it deconstructs the image of teachers "as those who keep order and disseminate knowledge" and shows that "[t]eaching is not an isolated activity that begins and ends at the classroom door." Villarreal commented that the film "teaches you not to let your friends down", while Fishburne and Hornaday highlighted its theme of community. Marrit Ingman of The Austin Chronicle said the film indicates "a community-based, cooperative model of group success," while Justin Chang of Variety said it "focuses ... on the bee's community-uniting impact." Hodges said Akeelah goes to the spelling bee because she recognizes it "proves that someone from their neighborhood can achieve success, and her achievement is, in a real sense, their own". In contrast, Bernard Beck wrote for Multicultural Perspectives that it depicts "the success of individual perseverance", while Red Feather Journalls Kathryn Linder expressed a similar opinion about individual success. Nevertheless, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times commented "it raises important points about the ... obstacles to success that kids from poor neighborhoods face." The New York Presss reviewer went further and said social class was its "real subject" as it "depicts the basics of class mobility that are routinely taken for granted". However, Chang asserted it shows the spelling bee contest as "a democratizing force", while Rob Asghar, for The Seattle Times, wrote it treats English as "the quintessential American tool for success." Both Fishburne and Bassett also remarked that an important message of Akeelah and the Bee is to "speak properly" rather than strictly in vernacular, although Bassett emphasized the importance of the film's themes beyond spelling and spelling bees. Atchison added that beyond