Post by bladestarr on Sept 29, 2005 8:46:28 GMT -5
a lot of these teacher-type movies are very formulaic. Teacher with uncompromising morals and full of fire shows up at either an underprivileged, poverty-stricken school or an uber-wealthy, Nazi-run prep school. Teacher leads by example and fights students and administration, and eventually wins students over. Parents are annoyed by teacher's unorthodox teaching methods, but teacher continues, convinced he or she is right. Some catastrophe befalls one of the students — suicide, murder, or pregnancy are all favorites. Public is outraged. Students stand behind teacher, stating how much teacher changed their lives. Teacher has a 50/50 shot of being dismissed or kept on at the end… providing they live.
I think you hit the nail on the head with this one, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. Like the Cosby Show, it is very unrealistic, but it shows the IDEAL of what teachers SHOULD be and we need that ideal to be out there.
On a side note, if you dig these types of movies, you should definately check out the manga Great Teacher Onizuka. Here's a summary of what it's all about, from Wikipedia:
This story is about the life of Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old biker who initially has no idea whatsoever about what to do with his life.
While peeping up girl's skirts at a local shopping mall, Onizuka meets a girl who agrees to go out on a date with him. However, Onizuka's attempts to bed her fail when her current 'boyfriend' - her teacher - shows up at the love hotel they were in and asks her to come back. This teacher is old and unattractive, but she is so under this teacher's power that she leaps from a window two stories up and lands in his arms.
Onizuka, seeing this display of a teacher's power over girls, decides to become one himself, and discovers three important things:
1. He has a conscience and a sense of morality. This means taking advantage of impressionable schoolgirls is out...but their unusually attractive parents (see Kunio Murai, below) are a different matter.
2. He enjoys teaching.
3. He hates the systems of traditional instruction, especially when they have grown ignorant and condescending.
With these realizations, he sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, using his own wacky brand of philosophy and the ability to do nearly anything when under sufficient pressure. One example being improving his grade from near-zero to perfect on a standardized test in one week, and taking said test in one hour (two in the anime) instead of the normal five, all with a few bullet wounds in him from using the other three to rescue the daughter of a famous government official from a yakuza hideout. Hired as a long-shot teacher by a privately operated school to tame a class that has driven one teacher to suicide, one to nervous breakdown, and one to joining a cult, he embarks on a mission of self-discovery by one by one breaking through to each student, and helping each student, ranging from the busty bimbo to the Oedipal Rebel, to learn to genuinely enjoy life.
While peeping up girl's skirts at a local shopping mall, Onizuka meets a girl who agrees to go out on a date with him. However, Onizuka's attempts to bed her fail when her current 'boyfriend' - her teacher - shows up at the love hotel they were in and asks her to come back. This teacher is old and unattractive, but she is so under this teacher's power that she leaps from a window two stories up and lands in his arms.
Onizuka, seeing this display of a teacher's power over girls, decides to become one himself, and discovers three important things:
1. He has a conscience and a sense of morality. This means taking advantage of impressionable schoolgirls is out...but their unusually attractive parents (see Kunio Murai, below) are a different matter.
2. He enjoys teaching.
3. He hates the systems of traditional instruction, especially when they have grown ignorant and condescending.
With these realizations, he sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, using his own wacky brand of philosophy and the ability to do nearly anything when under sufficient pressure. One example being improving his grade from near-zero to perfect on a standardized test in one week, and taking said test in one hour (two in the anime) instead of the normal five, all with a few bullet wounds in him from using the other three to rescue the daughter of a famous government official from a yakuza hideout. Hired as a long-shot teacher by a privately operated school to tame a class that has driven one teacher to suicide, one to nervous breakdown, and one to joining a cult, he embarks on a mission of self-discovery by one by one breaking through to each student, and helping each student, ranging from the busty bimbo to the Oedipal Rebel, to learn to genuinely enjoy life.
