5 films about school teachers
There are many films that take part in a school. The exciting aspect of these is the fact that it is offered a special, innovative kind of education. Usually, this is accomplished by showing a good teacher with good methods, good relation with the students and a charsimatic personality overall.
This category is important because the films below offer alternatives ways to educate. They also tend to express certain values that are worth mentioning.
Important: these films aren’t shown in any particular order.
Also, this is just a selection; that does not mean that other educative films are not as good
1. "To Sir, With Love" (Clavell 1967)
Based on the true story of E. R. Braithwaite, the film features a high school teacher, performed by Sidney Poitier, who enters a new institution. There, he finds a difficult group of teenagers and he find himself in the need for a different approach to the education, stepping away from the traditional modes of teaching.
It is interesting to see how the main character, the teacher, shows certain values to the students and how he manages to educate them with an individualized approach.
2. "Detachment" (Kaye 2011)
This film is more focused on the teacher, and it has a more pessimistic, dark perspective.
Starring Adrien Brody, it tells the story of a subtitute teacher in a high school with a very complicated situation: the students behave in the most disrespectful ways and the teachers are exhausted. Brody’s character, then, manages to connect to the class students by providing a critical way of thinking, but his own problems don’t make it easy for him. He also established a good relationship, in an educative way, with the rest of the teachers and with a young girl that works as a prostitute.
The film leaves you with a bittersweet taste. The values that the main character express make the film worth watching. It is also a critique to the bad situation of public schools in many places.
3. "Entre les murs" (Cantet 2008)
Entre les murs, or “The Class”, in English, is a french film that is also about teachers and how they do their job.
Most of the films have a plot which surrounds a main character; therefore, this plot consists of the purposes and obstacles that this character finds. However, this film doesn’t have a character as the central piece, but an institution; in this case, a school.
So, the film is very recommended to those who want to be a teacher in the future. It tells the story of a highschool in a neighborhood in France; it tells its difficulties and its ways of organizing. The story follows more closely a new teacher who has to adapt to the system.
It’s also interesting because it shows the realistic situation of France in terms of people. That is, there is much cultural diversity, and it is something very present in the film.
4. "Dead Poets Society" (Weir 1989)
Well, this one is a classic.
The film tells the story of a new English teacher, starred magnificently by Robin Williams, in a high standard school. He soon proves to have a teaching method that stands out for how innovative is. The interesting thing is that he makes the students think critically and to question all the stuff that they have been given for granted.
It’s very nice to see the values that are transmitted to a group of boys (because it’s a boy school) that are very different from, for instance, the previous film. Also, how these values are transmitted and how teaching can be a revolutionary act.
Fact: In the film we also find the glorious scene with the phrase: “Oh captain my captain!”