Facing long odds at getting her adopted son's GPA high enough to qualify for college, Leigh Anne Tuohy discovers there's one faculty member who is making it harder for Michael than the rest. He's an English teacher (Tom Nowicki), and he's unwilling to make any exceptions and wants Michael to earn his approval, not get it because his mother has twisted his arm. As fate would have it, a final English essay may be the ticket to getting his grades where they need to be, and after a brief internal struggle, Michael discovers the 19th-century poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
While Michael's adoptive father, Sean, likens the poem's message about soldiers following orders to football players following the instructions of their coaches to form a winning team, Michael has an entirely different — and far more personal — interpretation. To him, the poem's words aren't just about the literal following of orders, but about courage and honor. He thinks about how some of the soldiers must have considered refusing orders but went ahead anyway, knowing they would likely die. That was courage, but for Michael, it was about defining who you are and who you want to be in life, which is precisely what he has been fighting to discover throughout the film.
Through "Charge of the Light Brigade" Michael learns about himself, and how he can make his own choices and decide for himself who he really is.
