They Obscure Important Issues

By focusing so narrowly on the inspirational teacher-overlooked student dynamic, the genre of movie teaching implicitly sends the message: All kids need is somebody to believe in them. Think of Gabourey Sidibe’s character in Precious. Or the “Dungeon Kids” in Take the Lead. Almost every teacher movie follows the same dramatic arc: previously overlooked children have their potential unleashed only through the benevolent intervention of a charismatic adult.

This is largely hokum. Kids need food, shelter, loving and stable families, health care, and a decent education in order to best fulfill their potential. To pretend otherwise is to watch these movies as a sort of absolution of guilt, a vicarious purging of our responsibility to our fellow citizens and community members. Poverty, crime, the collapse of family life, moral norms: one really good teacher— even one really good Harvard-educated teacher—can’t bear the burden of all of this. As tempting as it is, you can’t expiate an entire community’s responsibility onto the people who teach your children (or your neighbors’ children) for most of the working day.

They Make Teachers Out to Be Superheroes…

I can’t tell you how many times someone has asked me what I do for a living and responded with something akin to: “Teaching! I don’t know if I could do it, man.” Well, maybe that’s because you’ve been led to believe that we all put on capes before work and have freakishly large inner emotional reserves with which to cope with the daily insanity that is a group of thirty children.

Take Hilary Swank’s character in Freedom Writers. She gets a second job to pay for books and supplies, stays impeccably dressed while never once losing her temper, and gives up most of her relationships including divorcing her husband—all for the children under her care.

The reality is that teachers snap at students and have bad days just like anybody else. We spend a lot of our time grading, proctoring exams, trying to implement standards, and, well, teaching. (Note the distinct lack of 30-second inspirational Oscar-bait speeches in the above list.) There are amazing teachers and mediocre teachers—but the great majority are, frankly, average at what they do. Just like any other profession.

But in just about every teaching movie, effective teaching is only ever presented as an all-consuming passion, devouring boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, free time and hobbies. And it’s true: most good teachers do work long hours and sacrifice their time in the evenings and weekends. But consider the cost of this messaging: If you have to be somewhere between a saint and a superhero pulling investment banking hours for a fraction of the salary, then what kind of sane person would want to sign up to be a teacher? And that’s a problem for a profession with 7.2 million members that sees 46 percent of new teachers leave within five years.