It’s Friday, and usually at this time we take a few minutes to review the weekend’s big movie releases. But this week, in honor of our week-long series on education, we want to hear your favorite high-school-based movies. In the spirit of our series, we’re going to stick with movies that take place at public schools.
From Grease, to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, to the Breakfast Club, high school has always figured prominently in Hollywood. But Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer, hosts of The Takeaway’s Movie Date podcast, both prefer the inspirational brand of education movie. Kristen recommends To Sir, with Love, the classic film starring Sidney Poitier, and Rafer brings up Half Nelson with Ryan Gosling.
But why are there so many movies about teachers? Rafer Guzman, who is also the film critic for Newsday, thinks that it’s because teaching is such a difficult profession. “You’ve got to try to connect with a whole range of kids,” he says. “You have to be the disciplinarian, you have to be the nice guy, you have to be no nonsense, you have to be kind.”
Kristen agrees that it’s a tough gig, joking that if she had to do it, she’d be closer to Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher than Sidney Poitier. “Hats off to all the public school teachers out there!”