Does Hollywood do a disservice to teachers?

NEWS RELEASE

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

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Film expert goes back to school by studying teachers in movies

Teachers might be able to learn a few lessons about how to engage their students by watching how teachers are portrayed in movies, says a Purdue University film expert.

"There are dozens and dozens of films about teaching," says Richard Stockton Rand, a professor of theater. "And we see a range of teacher prototypes in film: from Kevin Kline in The Emperor's Club,' to Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds to Glenn Ford in Blackboard Jungle.

"Usually teachers are portrayed in a way that makes us all wish we had those kinds of teachers. And as teachers, we often wish we were those kinds of teachers and had the perfect answers at our fingertips."

As a result, students and their parents may have unrealistic expectations about teachers because of the way on-screen teachers are portrayed, Rand says.

"For the most part, movies about teachers all conform to a classic dramatic structure where a chaotic classroom becomes an idyllic realm of transformation for students," he says. "Students have epiphanies, problems are solved, and we leave the movie theater with hope for the future. This is entertaining and inspiring, but the real thing is far more chaotic, unpredictable and thorny than anything seen on film. The willingness to confront problems, to embrace the struggle to learn and to go on learning in a world where issues don't resolve and simple solutions don't exist - this is what the classroom should be teaching."

What's valuable about these films, both historical and contemporary, is that they are ultimately about engagement, Rand says.

Teachers commit to engaging with whatever awaits them in the small world of a classroom.

If they impart that willingness to engage to their students, those students will carry that desire into the larger classroom of the world, he says.

"Acing the exam, making the grade, getting the diploma - these are illusions of closure," Rand says. "They don't alter the essential challenge implicit in the teacher-student relationship, and the message of that relationship is: 'Never stop learning, never stop grappling. Engaging with the big questions and problems goes hand in hand with being a member of the world.'"

For the past 20 years, Rand, an expert in characterization for actors, has been teaching teachers to bring theatrical techniques into the classroom.

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