Teacher movies

Yesterday Teacher Movies came up. There are a lot of teacher movies out there - heaven knows why - and 90% of them are so full of bullshit and sunshine it makes me want to yak.

You have no idea how many times someone has said to me "Oh you're just like Michelle Pfeifer in that movie!" It's the second-most annoying thing people say to me. The first most annoying thing is something new kids always say to me and I'm not going to give you that kind of ammunition.

Dangerous Minds is ridiculous. Ask any teacher. The book may have been okay; it was written by a teacher, but the movie is the glossiest piece of unrealistic garbage this side of a dumpster on Melrose. It takes her like one day to figure how to reach all the kids and once she magically knows what to say to them, they all worship her. Even these two poor black kids who can barely tie their shoes without the white lady's help, all they want to do is go to school but she just can't save them from their ignorant Negro parents.

It's insulting to both teachers and the black community.

Freedom Writers is a little better. The kids are more realistic and it does show how devoting yourself too much to the job can destroy your personal life. I do not go to my children's homes. I do not schedule controversial field trips. I will not bail them out of jail. I will call Social Services if someone is abusing them. I will listen to their problems and give them advice. But I ain't going bankrupt over construction paper and notebooks.

Most teachers don't kill themselves for their classes. But I guess if she was most teachers, it wouldn't be much of a movie.

People always seem to think my job is SO HARD. It is some days, but I do it, I enjoy it, then I go home to enjoy the rest of my day. I admire that Freedom Writers lady. I also think she's nuts.

There are tons of other teacher movies out there - some good, some not so good, but the best I've ever seen is James Clavell's 1967 classic To Sir, With Love. Sydney Poitier plays a first year teacher with an extensive formal education despite his childhood on the streets. He comes to work in a British school filled with societal rejects as he waits for a better job in engineering.

He doesn't walk in the second day of school and suddenly know what to do. He doesn't go to the kids' homes and explain why their parents need to be better. He doesn't do all those cliche things we supposedly do if we're good teachers. He simply tries. He tells the truth. He loves the kids. And in the end, they love him back, not because he did some big dramatic gesture, but because he made sure they learned what they needed to learn. And at no point was that job easy.

He does take them on a field trip and he does have to argue with administration, but those are minor parts of the film and at that point in film history they had yet to become cliche.

When I was a kid I used to love Lulu's theme song from that film, although I had no idea what it was about. Ever since I saw To Sir, With Love I can't even sing one line of that song without bursting into tears. That's how good that Goddamn movie is.

So really, from now on, if you want to compare me to a teacher you saw in the movies, compare me to Sydney Poitier please.