Movie Monday: Schoolteachers On Screen

Day 81


School has started for most people by now (except for me, thank goodness!) and I thought it would be interesting to do a post on school in the movies, specifically on schoolteachers (valuable, yet often under appreciated!), and I just happened to have recently watched two favorite movies that deal with schoolteachers:

To Sir, With Love (1967)

Sidney Poitier (one of my favorite Oscar-winning actors) stars as Mark Thackery, a newly assigned teacher at the North Quay school in England, a school notorious for having cast-offs, juvenile delinquents and rejects in its student body. It’s a tough school, and Mark is thrown into a class full of very challenging students. In the beginning Mark faces minor disputes, insults and remarks, but it gradually worsens, to the point that Mark loses his temper in the classroom, something he promised himself he would never do. He’s frustrated that he’s let a group of unruly teenagers get under his skin, but he is then inspired to take a completely different approach to the class. He decides to treat these teenagers as adults and disbands the regular curriculum and in its place begins teaching “life lessons”, things that will be more beneficial to the students. It doesn’t take long for the class to warm up to “Sir” (as they affectionately call him); one student, a beautiful girl named Pamela Dare, develops a crush on him; and another student, Denham (who is the group leader and is the most defiant), quickly learns to respect and appreciate “Sir” and what he is trying to do for them. This is a great, great movie, and has a very memorable theme song, performed by one of the cast members named Lulu, called…“To Sir, With Love” (but of course!)

Anne Of Green Gables: The Sequel (1987)

Megan Follows (a beautiful red-headed actress I’ve got a crush on) stars in this made-for-TV movie about Anne Shirley, a schoolteacher living in a little town on Prince Edward Island called Avonlea, in the early 1900s, with aspirations of becoming a writer. The main plot line concerns Anne being given the great opportunity of teaching at the Kingsport Ladies College in New Brunswick. Once there Anne discovers that she may be in over her head. The city is populated with extremely wealthy (and spoiled) people, descending from the family Pringle. Anne is faced with teaching a class full of these spoiled, pampered girls, as they engage in very insulting and disrespectful behavior towards Anne. What‘s worse is that everyone in town seems to be against her, and the principal of the school, Miss Brooke, is a cold, embittered woman with complete disdain for Anne. But she prevails and refuses to be intimidated or forced to resign. Anne is able to use her cleverness, her kindness and wit to win over the students, the entire town of Kingsport and eventually even Miss Brooke (whom she discovers is truly a ’kindred spirit’). This is another one of my favorite movies, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoy this movie that is very popular among girls. In fact, all the women in my family enjoy this movie.

Both of these movies have a representation of what I consider to be the ideal schoolteacher: a person devoted to the welfare and well-being of the students; able to persevere through various prejudices and intolerant behavior; full of creativity and zeal and able to import these gifts to the students; not afraid to buck conventions in order to obtain the greater good; and ultimately providing a positive influence on everyone.