teacher, teacher, can you teach me –

I was revisiting a classic movie, one of the ones on this list, in the past week or so, and thinking of the archetypal teacher/student dynamic in fiction.

So, in line with my Top Five Tales of Bands from last year, here's my take on the Top Five Tales of Teachers (meaning teachers, students, and that dynamic).

Before we jump in to the list, remember to vote on the COVER DESIGN for the ANTHOLOGY OF DREAMS project, here in the Duck Forums:

https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/179640/


Top Five Tales of Teachers, Teaching, and Students

For this list, I'm focusing on actual teachers in schools - the actual student/teacher dynamic. So, not just mentor figures, coaches and what have you.

There are PLENTY I haven't seen. In the world of anime, this dynamic is legion, but I haven't seen enough anime to have any real favorites there.

Onward, students!


5. Summer School
An 80's comedy that I LOVED when I was young. I actually remember being embarrassed about loving it so much, and rewatching it so often. Until a
friend from school mentioned the movie and I realized that other people could be entranced by movies, just like I could. It's a classic setup - a slacker gym teacher, California surfer guy played by Mark Harmon is forced to teach summer school for a bunch of eccentric, struggling students. They bond, he helps them and they help him, and he gets to fall in love with Kirstie Alley! Not a bad summer! Watching it again recently, it's as charming as ever, but with multiple scenes that don't really make sense. Still a winner in my book, and it features two students who are obsessed with movies, horror makeup and special effects, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Noice!

4. Mr. Holland's Opus
This might be THE movie about teaching. At least, that's the impression I get. A musician (Richard Dreyfuss) takes a teaching gig when he's desperate for money. The movie follows thirty-something years in his life as a teacher and a husband and father. He works away at paying the bills and constantly has to set aside his own musical ambitions. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. The makeup is really great too, making Richard Dreyfuss younger, then older than his actual age. A great one.

3. School of Rock
This movie made my top five tales of bands/music as well. It's just awesome. Jack Black's at his best, and the script is phenomenal. Jack Black reunites with the kids from the class/band every ten years or so for a reunion concert. How sweet is that?

2. Honorable Mentions
There is nooooo…number two. Honestly, there are some classics that I either haven't seen (Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds) or don't remember well enough (Teachers, Kindergarten Cop), or are amazing but just don't fit the teacher/student/classroom paradigm for this list (Morgan Freeman in Lean on Me is the Principal, Tom Hanks in a League of their own is a coach, same as Walter Matthau in the Bad News Bears). Speaking of Dangerous Minds, the trailer for that movie is all I've ever seen. For whatever reason, I saw that trailer a hundred times. Michelle Pfeiffer comes into the class in a leather jacket? I'd be hitting the books like a madman, I tells ya! There was a parody of that movie/genre with Jon Lovitz called High School High. The parody used that same cool, tough-sounding hip hop song. Just the two trailers told the whole story, somehow!

1. Dead Poets Society
I went for Robin Williams (it was his first dramatic role I think), but stayed for the students in this super-strict, rigid, conformist boarding school in the 1950's. Robin Williams is the new English Teacher who opens the minds of the boys in his class and inspires them to think outside the box. This movie got me at the right time, when I was a teenager looking to be inspired. Carpe Diem! Seize the day! This movie holds up. There are debates online with some people arguing that Robin Williams as the teacher is actually completely wrong to be doing what he's doing in this class, and doing the boys a disservice. It's interesting to see these debates. I think I see this film as more metaphorical in a way, with the conformity and authoritarian nature of the school and the inspiration from Robin Williams kind of representing parts of our own minds, and the struggles we face in life to figure out how to function in life as well as how to LIVE. Still a powerful movie.


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