I have a long, Love/ Hate relationship with "teacher movies". When I was younger I found them an amazing source of inspiration. Movies like Mr. Holland's Opus, Lean on Me, and of course, The Dead Poet's Society, all made me want to be a teacher. Yes, all the heroes in these movies face obsticals, and they don't always win, but they make teaching look like magic. Like if you work hard and your intentions are good, amazing things happen. Which, may still very well be true, but...
Once I started teaching, I hated them.
For whatever reason, when it came to teacher films, I apparently had previously tended to ignore the fact that these were all movies- meaning they embellished reality. Even in pointing out they faults in an educational system or society on the whole, certain aspects of them are either over-simplified or over idealized, even the ones that are based on real life. When I actually got into the classroom at 23 and saw what the reality was like, I couldn't handle it. I was too startled by how " hard work" was indeed, just that; actually the hardest work I had ever encountered in my life, to the point where it reshaped my definition of it. It was demoralizing, and I hadn't expected that. I left my first full time teacher job before I'd even really grappled with trying to make sense of what the reality of teaching was.
The following year, I found the movie Chalk, and I loved it, and I still love it. It is one of the only movies that I feel really told the story of my experience teaching- which is far more common, I would suspect, than the stories of the super-star teachers other movies might be based on. It was funny, quirky, frustrating, touching and most of all, true to life- even though it is a mockumentary.
Chalk Trailer
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