(NAME-MCE) Top 10 Top Inspirational Movies for Educators (updated 9-7-09)

[Bill Howe]

Thanks to those that wrote in their suggestions. I have added them to the
list at the end. Let me know if I missed anyone. 

 

 

 

Top 10 Top Inspirational Movies for Educators (updated 9-7-09)

 

By Melissa Kelly, About.com

 

 

Educators need to be reminded of the importance of their jobs. Here are ten

movies that inspire us and make us feel proud to be in the field of

education where we really do have an impact. Enjoy!

 

 

 

1. Stand and Deliver

 

The classic teacher movie whose message is very important in today's

society: never believe that students are unable to learn. Instead of

teaching to the lowest common denominator, Edward James Olmos in a true

story as Jaime Escalante sets his sights much higher, getting them to pass

the AP Calculus exam. Excellent, enjoyable choice.

 

2. Dangerous Minds

 

Michelle Pfeiffer is excellent as real-life former marine Louanne Johnson.

Teaching English in a tough inner-city school, she reaches the "unteachable"

through caring and understanding. Very true-to-life, Dangerous Minds does

not fall into sentimentality but instead teaches us of the importance of

making our own choices and not allowing circumstances to rule us.

 

3. Lean on Me

 

Morgan Freeman plays Joe Clark, the real-life bat-wielding Principal whose

goal was to bring discipline and learning to Eastside High School in New

York. While he was not always the easiest on the teachers, it would sure be

nice if more Principals stressed the importance of discipline and learning

in their schools as he did. This film shows the importance of having strong

leadership at the top.

 

4. Mr. Holland's Opus

 

This memorable movie gives all teachers hope that they truly have an impact

on their students. Richard Dreyfuss is wonderful as a musician/composer who

must take a teaching job to support his family. In the end, Dreyfuss'

character realizes that he has had as much if not more of an impact from his

teaching as he would have as a composer.

 

5. Dead Poet's Society

 

Robin Williams gives an awesome performance as an unconventional English

teacher in a very conventional (read conservative) private school. His love

of poetry and his inspiring teaching methods have a great impact on his

students. The central message of the movie, to live life to the fullest

everyday, is not lost. Further, Williams' poetry recitations are

awe-inspiring.

 

6. To Sir With Love

 

Produced in 1967, this film with Sidney Poitier as a novice teacher has a

lot to teach us today. Poitier takes a teaching position in the rough part

of London in order to pay his bills. Realizing that his students need to be

taught important life lessons more than the curriculum he has been handed to

teach them, he throws out the lesson plans and makes a real impact on their

personal lives.

 

7. The Miracle Worker

 

The ultimate teaching miracle, Anne Bancroft is awesome as Annie Sullivan

who uses 'tough love' to get through to the deaf and blind Helen Keller

played by Patty Duke. Very few people can watch the famous 'water' scene

without experiencing a feeling of triumph and relief. Excellent portrayal of

the importance of perseverence. Both Bancroft and Duke won an Academy Award

for their performances.

 

8. Renaissance Man

 

Danny Devito's performance as a teacher of the 'Double-D's' is both humorous

and inspired. What appears to be a light-hearted comedy truly has a deeper

meaning. Devito's character proves that William Shakespeare still has much

to teach students. Surprisingly clean and somewhat corny at times,

Renaissance Man in the end teaches important life lessons on responsibility

and character.

 

9. Music of the Heart

 

This film shows the influence that one person's drive and vision can have on

others. Meryl Streep plays real-life Roberta Guaspari who moves to Harlem as

a single-mother and becomes a violin teacher. Working through racial and

other barriers, Roberta creates an acclaimed music program in an area where

many would have said it was impossible. Definitely a heart-warming movie.

 

10. The Karate Kid

 

While not normally thought of as a 'classroom' movie, The Karate Kid has

much to say to teachers: Sometimes we have to have our students do things

that they will not understand until much later; Basic skills are most

important; Honor and integrity are central to character; Students need to

see us beam with excitement over their achievements. A fun, nostalgic and

inspiring movie to relish.

 

 

Other recommendations from NAME ListServ Subscribers:

 

.         The Great Debaters - Great Debaters is a 2007 film directed by and
starring two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and produced by
Oprah Winfrey and her production company, Harpo Productions. It is based on
an article written about the Wiley College debate team by Tony Scherman for
the 1997 Spring issue of American Legacy. Based on a true story, the plot
revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel
Washington) at historically black Wiley College to place his team on equal
footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow
laws were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks. In the
movie, the Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able
to debate Harvard University. The movie also explores the social milieu of
Texas during the Great Depression including not only the day-to-day insults
and slights African Americans endured, but also a lynching. Also depicted is
James L. Farmer, Jr. who, at 14-years of age, was on Wiley's debate team
after completing high school (and who later went on to co-found C.O.R.E.,
the Congress of Racial Equality). According to the Houston Chronicle,
another character depicted on the team, Samantha Booke, is based on the real
individual Henrietta Bell Wells, "the only female member of the 1930 debate
team from Wiley College who participated in the first collegiate interracial
debate in the United States."Melvin B. Tolson also happens to be a major
African American poet whose papers are housed at the Library of Congress.






.         Conrack-  starring Jon Voight and Paul Winfield - Conrack is an
Academy Award-nominated 1974 film based on the 1972 autobiographical book
The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy, directed by Martin Ritt and starring Jon
Voight in the title role, alongside Paul Winfield, Madge Sinclair, Hume
Cronyn and Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas. The film was released by 20th
Century Fox on March 27, 1974. The story follows a young teacher (Jon
Voight) in 1969 assigned to an isolated Yamacraw Island off the coast of
South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds out that
the children as well as the adults have been isolated from the rest of the
world and speak a dialect called Gullah and "Conrack" is their way of saying
his name "Conroy." The school is a two room school with the Principal (Madge
Sinclair) teaching grades one through four and Conrack teaching the higher
grades. He discovers that they know very little. He tries to teach them
about the outside world and comes in conflict both with the principal and
Mr. Skeffington (Hume Cronyn), the superintendent. This comes to a head when
he takes them to Beaufort on the mainland to go trick or treating, which the
superintendent has forbidden. He also must overcome parental fears of "the
river." As a result, he's fired. As he leaves the island for the last time,
the children come out to see him leave, bringing along a record player on
which they play the beginning movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as he
leaves.

 

.         Finding Forrester - Finding Forrester is a 2000
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_in_film>  movie
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film> , written
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenplay>  by Mike Rich
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rich>  and directed
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_director>  by Gus
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Van_Sant>  Van Sant, about a teenager,
Jamal Wallace, played by Rob
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Brown_(actor)>  Brown, who is accepted
into a prestigious private high school. He also befriends a reclusive
writer, William Forrester, played by Sean
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Connery>  Connery. Finding Forrester is
the story of sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace's life in the rough world of the
inner city, his meeting with a literary genius, William Forrester, and the
friendship that develops between the two, as Forrester becomes a mentor and
assists Jamal with his transition through the doors to the more upscale and
well-to-do educational environment that Jamal's intellectual and athletic
abilities open for him.



.         Good-bye, Mr. Chips - Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) is a British film
based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam
Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills and
Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff,
Claudine West and Eric Maschwitz. In 1933, Mr. Chipping (Robert Donat), a
retired schoolteacher of 85, is kept home by a cold. Managing to arrive
late, despite doctor's orders he finds the assembly hall locked. He is
disturbed by a new boy, who is being pranked by older pupils; realising what
has happened to the boy, he invites him in and asks if he is a new boy and
then tells him he was once new as well. Back at home he falls asleep (and
his 58-year career is related in flashback). The film was voted the 72nd
greatest British film ever in the BFI Top 100 British films poll.

.          Stand and Deliver - Stand and Deliver is a 1988 film dramatizing
the work of Jaime Escalante, a dedicated high school mathematics teacher
portrayed by Edward James Olmos. Based on a true story, this low budget
movie opens with the background of East L.A. In an environment that values a
quick fix over education and learning, Jaime A. Escalante (Olmos) is a new
teacher at James A. Garfield High School in Los Angeles County, California
determined to change the system and challenge the students to a higher level
of achievement. Leaving a steady job for a position as a math teacher in a
school where rebellion runs high and teachers are more focused on discipline
than academics, Escalante is at first not well liked by students, receiving
numerous taunts and threats. As the year progresses, he is able to win over
the attention of the students by implementing innovative teaching
techniques, using props and humor to illustrate abstract concepts of math
and convey the necessity of math in everyday lives. He is able to transform
even the most troublesome teens to dedicated students. While Escalante
teaches math 1A, basic arithmetic, he realizes that his kids can progress so
he decides to teach them calculus. To do so, he holds a summer course of
what is implied in the movie as pre-calculus material, such as advanced
algebra, math analysis, and trigonometry. Calculus starts in the students'
senior year. Despite concerns and skepticism of other teachers, who feel
that "you can't teach logarithms to illiterates", Escalante nonetheless
develops a program in which his students can rise to take AP Calculus by
their senior year. This intense math program requires that students take
summer classes, including Saturdays from 7:00 AM to noon, taxing for even
the most devoted students. While other students spend their summers working
or becoming teenage parents, Escalante's students learn complex theorems and
formulas. The vast contrast between home life and school life, however,
begins to show as these teens struggle to find the balance between what
other adults and especially their parents expect of them and the goals and
ambitions they hold for themselves. With Escalante to help them, they soon
find the courage to separate from society's expectations for failure and
rise to the standard to which Escalante holds them. Taking the AP Calculus
exam in the spring of their senior year, these students are relieved and
overjoyed to be finished with a strenuous year. After receiving their
scores, they are overwhelmed with emotion to find that they have all passed,
a feat done by few in the state. Later that summer a shocking accusation is
made: the Educational Testing Service calls into question the validity of
their scores when it is discovered that similarities between errors is too
high for pure chance. Outraged by the implications of cheating, Escalante
feels that the racial and economic status of the students has caused the ETS
to doubt their intelligence. In order to prove their mathematical abilities
and worth to the school, to the ETS, and to the nation, the students agree
to retake the test at the end of the summer, months after their last class.
The students are given only one day to prepare and Escalante gravely tells
them that the test will be harder than the first. The students all pass and
Escalante tells the school principal that he wants his students' original
scores reinstated.

.         Educating Rita - Educating Rita is a 1983 film of Willy Russell's
play of the same title directed by Lewis Gilbert and stars Julie Walters,
Michael Caine, and Maureen Lipman with a screenplay by Russell. An English
working-class girl wants to better herself by studying literature. Her
assigned Open University professor, however, has long since openly taken to
the bottle, and soon develops misgivings about her ability to adapt to
academia.

 

.         Freedom Writers - Freedom Writers is a 2007 drama film starring
Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Dempsey. It is based
on the book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell who wrote the
story based on Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach,
California. The title is a play on both the terms of "Freedom Riders", the
black and white civil rights activists who tested the U.S. Supreme Court
decision ordering the desegregation of interstate buses in 1961, and Freedom
Fighters, as in somebody who fights for freedom. The idea for the film came
from journalist Tracey Durning, who made a documentary about Erin Gruwell
for the ABC News program Primetime Live. Durning served as co-executive
producer of the film.

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Howe

Personal Website  -    <http://www.billhowe.org/> http://www.billhowe.org

Travel Blog  -   <http://billhowe.org/BillBlog/>
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Travel to China and Hong Kong July 10-24, 2010 
- <http://www.billhowe.org/China2010.htm>
http://www.billhowe.org/China2010.htm

 

 

 

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