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Looking for uplifting teaching movies

Started by pedanticromantic, January 19, 2022, 05:12:10 PM

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pedanticromantic

Not the white saviour into black neighbourhood movies, but a decent film where a teacher makes a difference. I'm really struggling with my mental health and the (still currently online where I am) teaching at the moment. Need to remind myself why I do this.

dismalist

Quote from: pedanticromantic on January 19, 2022, 05:12:10 PM
Not the white saviour into black neighbourhood movies, but a decent film where a teacher makes a difference. I'm really struggling with my mental health and the (still currently online where I am) teaching at the moment. Need to remind myself why I do this.

How about a black teacher in a neighborhood of white kids, working stiffs? To Sir with Love, 1967.

How about a white female teacher in a neighborhood of white boys, losers? Up the Down Staircase, 1967.

Can't be that the genre ended in 1967.

Best  of luck.

That's not even wrong!
--Wolfgang Pauli

mamselle

"Dead Poet's Society," to the degree that the issues are addressed as well as the difficulties.

A cautionary tale, perhaps, as much as anything.

There's also a thread for sharing in more detail if that would be useful, here:

    http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=1380.285

And of course, if counselling is at all a possibility, that can be a support in the rocky spots, too.

All good thoughts as you work through this.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

Wahoo Redux

"Stand and Deliver" is cheesy but still well done.  A high school movie based on a true story.

Hope you feel better.  Education is one of the most important things that we have.  You are part of that.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

kaysixteen

"Mr. Holland's Opus" was pretty darn good, too.

ergative

Quote from: dismalist on January 19, 2022, 05:25:09 PM
Quote from: pedanticromantic on January 19, 2022, 05:12:10 PM
Not the white saviour into black neighbourhood movies, but a decent film where a teacher makes a difference. I'm really struggling with my mental health and the (still currently online where I am) teaching at the moment. Need to remind myself why I do this.

How about a black teacher in a neighborhood of white kids, working stiffs? To Sir with Love, 1967.

How about a white female teacher in a neighborhood of white boys, losers? Up the Down Staircase, 1967.

Can't be that the genre ended in 1967.

Best  of luck.

Up the Down Staircase was an excellent book, too.

downer

A different approach is to view some terrible students and terrible teachers, so you can then be grateful that at least you have it better then them.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."—Sinclair Lewis

mahagonny

'A Beautiful Mind'

and some movies/novels are about teaching without using a professional educator character, like 'A Patch of Blue'

marshwiggle

Not to be a big downer, but the problem with movies like that is like looking at the "top 40 under 40" lists and things of that nature. Mozart wrote his first composition at 4!!!!

All of us are human; we will probably make a difference in a few lives, mostly people very close to us. Those "inspirational" stories set a bar that very few people will ever reach. (The reason they make such popular stories is that they are very atypical.)

So enjoy them as you will, but don't use them as the standard for judging your own life. I've had lots of students say they enjoyed my courses, but I can't recall one in nearly 4 decades saying that I had changed their life. That's fine. I've consistently worked to improve in order to provide more value to my students. But the job of "messiah" is already filled.

It takes so little to be above average.

mahagonny

I was once on a job where I didn't think I was doing my best work, or my work didn't matter enough. I bellyached about this to one of my co-workers at a coffee break, and she said 'what's missing in your thought process is the "take the money and run" attitude.'

mahagonny

#10
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 20, 2022, 04:25:06 AM
Not to be a big downer, but the problem with movies like that is like looking at the "top 40 under 40" lists and things of that nature. Mozart wrote his first composition at 4!!!!

All of us are human; we will probably make a difference in a few lives, mostly people very close to us. Those "inspirational" stories set a bar that very few people will ever reach. (The reason they make such popular stories is that they are very atypical.)

So enjoy them as you will, but don't use them as the standard for judging your own life. I've had lots of students say they enjoyed my courses, but I can't recall one in nearly 4 decades saying that I had changed their life. That's fine. I've consistently worked to improve in order to provide more value to my students. But the job of "messiah" is already filled.

[spoiler alert] In 'A Patch of Blue' it was Sydney Poitier's character who was saintly, but the education that Elizabeth Hartman's character would get, that he made possible, and would change her life, would be from regular trained people like many of us...;-)

I liked the film, although you could say the prostitute mom was cast as a stereotypical villain rather than one forced by circumstances (which the masterful Shelley Winters played vividly.)

pedanticromantic

Thanks folks. Some good suggestions I'll follow up on.
I'm just thinking I'm done with this job, at this point. I've been teaching for almost 20 years. The students are getting worse. The service load is getting worse. The research time has shrunk. I'm drained after a back and forth of online offline online offline for 2 years. 
I have more and more difficulty dealing with student bullshit ("Oh, help, I TRIED so I deserve an "A"!!") or "What do I do for this assignment?"(After I covered it twice in class and it's in the recorded lectures, etc.)
I have no more patience and I'm going to lose my shit on someone.
I want to watch movies about teachers who love what they're doing and make a difference, even if I feel those days are long gone.  Maybe I will be inspired. Maybe I won't. I'm not sure what else to do though except cut my losses and go do some other job.

mamselle

Realistically, is it possible to do exactly what your last sentence says?

Or at least take steps to get you there?

Is going part-time or retiring soon an option?

If watching a few films feels like what you need, that's cool, too, but it sounds like more input/nurture/change might be even more useful, still.

In all cases, continued support and good thoughts.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

Parasaurolophus

There's The Girl With All the Gifts... it's a bleak zombie movie, but the teacher makes a big difference.
I know it's a genus.

Anselm

I am Dr. Thunderdome and I run Bartertown.