5-Minute Film Festival: Hollywood Teachers
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Go to My Saved Content.Hollywood teacher movies typically provoke strong emotions: you either love to hate them or hate to love them. For better or for worse, those silver screen teachers shape how the public thinks about teaching. And most educators I know can't help but watch teacher movies, even if only to criticize them resoundingly, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style.
From heartwarming dramas about the optimistic, young (usually white) teacher who comes in to rescue the at-risk urban kids, to screwball comedies where burned out teachers do drugs in the staff room (hello Bad Teacher), teacher movies tend to fall into a few tired stereotypes, and yet we can't help but hope each one that comes out might actually capture a moment of what life in the classroom can be like. Check out my selection of scenes from teacher movies -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Best Teacher Movie Moments
Watch the first video below, or watch the whole playlist on YouTube.
More Resources About Teachers in the Media
I spent a lot of time in college thinking about media representation and how it affects audience perceptions of various groups, so I loved digging through all of these thoughtful articles breaking down the teacher movie genre. If you're a fan of media deconstruction and critical analysis like me, read on. And then, I included a few links to other teacher movie lists just for fun. Hat tip to Larry Ferlazzo for his blog post, "Best places to learn about and view video clips of teachers in the movies" for many of these resources.
Media Representations of Teachers
Collections of Teacher Movies
So of course, I'd love to know -- what are your most loved and most despised teacher movie moments? Please share in the comments below!