Introduction
Why do we love to watch movies? What is the purpose of the motion picture industry? Aside from monetary benefits, a movie—at its core—is storytelling. It is a medium in which an artist (e.g. Director, Writer, Producer, Actor) is able to “paint their picture”—expressing themselves. That (motion) picture can be used to educate and entertain. Action, Adventure, Horror, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Documentary, Drama, Comedy, and Mystery are a few of the many genres in the motion picture industry. There is no doubt that people love movies for various reasons and have many types to choose from. Some may argue that movies are waste of time. But really, who does not like to escape reality, momentarily, and indulge in the lives, stories, and fantasies of different people? Movies invoke different emotions in people watching the same film. A movie such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s Before the Flood can serve to awaken, inform, and inspire action to combat a global threat—climate change. Or perhaps lighthearted fun is on the agenda, and then a comedy such as Meet the Parents may suffice.
I could elaborate ad-nauseum the many movies I love and their respective genres. There is one particular movie genre (considered a niche genre) that I find fulfilling, suspenseful, dramatic, and hopeful: the “teacher film.” What are teacher films or teacher movies? A quick internet search of “teacher movies” produces numerous results such as Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers, Lean on Me, Stand and Deliver, The Great Debaters, and many others. These movies tell many stories related to education. Many times the ‘education’ may be formal and/or informal. The setting, plot, and characters may vary. However, the basic premise of these movies shows how an ‘ordinary’ person who has a passion for teaching and helping students can enter a classroom and become a superhero to students. The superhero or “super-teacher” puts on their ‘cape’ of thick-skin and quickly establishes relationships with the students. As the movies show, there is no shortage of difficult student-teacher relationships that need to be established before learning can occur. Many times, the ‘super-teacher’ may break away from traditional teaching techniques and strategies to grab the students’ attention. This is the case in a scene from Dead Poets Society where the teacher, John Keating, instructs his students to rip out the introductory pages in their textbooks then proceeds to stand on his desk to embody a way to look at something differently. Through grit, determination, love, compassion, and relentlessness, the ‘super-teacher’ prevails and all of his or her students make remarkable gains (socially and academically) within one school year.
Growing up in a family full of educators (teachers, principals, deans, administrators, and specialists), I remember at an early age family members sharing stories of their teaching experiences in education. Although I was young, I grew fond of looking forward to Friday nights at my uncle’s house where the adults sat around a table and “talked shop.” What was it about those stories that caught the ear of an eight- or nine-year-old playing with Legos and sustained his attention? Was it the wonderful Chemistry lessons my uncle created for his students; the peacemaker role my father had to play as the dean of students in the 1970s; or perhaps the student-teaching experiences they had as college students? Of course not, but their stories were like manuscripts that played like mini movies in my mind. So what was so appealing about these conversations? In retrospect, it was the life lessons, tough love, perseverance, conviction, passion, and, most importantly, the love that exuded from their desire to help people—children and young adults particularly. The facilitating and imparting of knowledge to students was a concept that seemed to remain consistent no matter who was sharing stories. Hence, my love for ‘teacher films’ such as Lean on Me, Freedom Writers, The Great Debaters, Dead Poets Society, and Stand and Deliver.
So what does all of this have to do with my unit? When I first entered the classroom, like many other teachers, I thought I was a superhero. Just because I set high and lofty expections, I believed that all of my students would grow in leaps and bounds—within one school year. Then reality set in. The “Real life” teaching challenges were a lot harder than what the movies portrayed. As an 8th grade math teacher I experienced students with deficits in math and reading so severe that I questioned how they were able to pass from previous grades.
The reality for me, as many other teachers would honestly confess, is that my movie played more like an episode from HBO’s The Wire (Season 4). The series, which is set in Baltimore, Maryland, follows the lives of adolescent middle school students in a “fictional” Baltimore public school system in one of the roughest neighborhoods in America. This “story” of socio-economic ills may be more common and applicable to the current state of teaching in urban school districts across the United States. Though not exactly like Baltimore, Richmond, Virginia, still has similar socioeconomic and educational tribulations too. Our school
Still, my superhero cape is not hung up. The stark realities of budget deficits, teacher turnover, neighborhood poverty and violence, and failing schools mean that ‘real life’ super-teachers will not save the day in 90 minutes. However, through consistency, accountability, support, and high expectations, deficits can be overcome.
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