Every few years we get another film about a superhero teacher who saves the day. I’m drawn to these stories while knowing full well how unrealistic they are. This summer, another teacher movie hits theaters. Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, tells a different type of teaching story: the story of a bad teacher.
This reminds me of a New York article that I read a few months back–”Mrs. Grundy was Fired Today” that notes how representations of teachers are changing: “Once deified, now demonized, teachers are under assault from union-busting Republicans on the right and wealthy liberals on the left.” For more visit this link: http://nymag.com/news/features/michelle-rhee-2011-3/
The website for Bad Teacher asks viewers: http:areyouabadteacher.com.. I can’t say that I think this shift in thinking is an improvement. When I did my demo a few years back, I found myself thinking about what type of movies do teachers want to see of themselves. Not deified. Not demonized. Ordinary teachers? Sounds like a box office hit.
Below is a preview of Bad Teacher along with a few other clips teachers:
This one is from Mad TV’s video about the nice white lady:
You may recognize Freedom Writers in the Mad TV clip:
And an old one: 1989′s Dead Poets Society, which contains the line, “He began by teaching English. Now he’s changing lives.”
1989 was also the year that Mike Rose wrote Lives on the Boundary–a classic about teacher and students who defy the odds.
May I recommend Hamlet 2 about a bad but also awesome drama teacher who writes the sequel to Hamlet since the ending of the first one is kinda depressing and could have been avoided with a little bit of therapy. I think it’s free on-demand right now if you happen to have Comcast cable.
Thanks Ellen. I’ll look for it.
Have you seen this? I can’t tell if it’s funny or terribly, terribly offensive. My classmates in my urban ed class last summer had very mixed feelings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-nirSq5s
William Ayers actually writes about that clip in his introduction to City Kids, City Schools. He says, “the portrayal is uncomfortably close to the view of urban youth that saturates the popular imagination” (xxv) and goes on to confront and resist the image of the hero-teacher that “operates in the patronizing conceit of child saving…[and] denigrates the steady commitment of hard-working teachers” (xxvii).
Thanks Rachel. Ayers does some great teacher ed work. When I did my demo a few years back, I used that Mad TV clip because it challenges overly optimistic accounts of literacy and learning..
Oh no, now I’m embarrassed, I didn’t see that you already included this!
Hmm, interesting first trailer… About fifteen years ago I attended a Human Genome Project teacher workshop at the University of Kansas. We all went to the opening of Jurassic Park. It proved significant in all conversations throughout our two weeks. Maybe we need to see Bad Teacher as a group…
Patrick’s product placement of “Bad Teacher” was very effective…my wife and I are going to see it this weekend!
Patrick, this entry really made me wonder…how do I want to be seen as a teacher? Well, not glorified or demonized. I guess we are all different. Maybe a really good documentary about the lives of real teachers. Why don’t you get started on it!