The depiction of teachers are very similar in the movies To Sir, With Love and Won't Back Down. The media tends to stereotype teachers as villains. In both of these films, the teachers don't seem to care about the students they are educating. They belittle their students and tyrannize the classroom, which is the complete opposite of what real teachers should be doing. Also, the teachers in the films appear to loath their jobs and simply tolerate the pain of being around their students. With teachers being portrayed in this manner, it's no wonder students hate going to school.
In To Sir, With Love, the students see teachers as someone who demands authority and basically push the students around. The students feel as though they are not being treated fairly and looked down upon. When being treated so poorly, it's no wonder these students act so rude and arrogant. The teachers in Won't Back Down aren't even trying to educate their students. They are not being engaging and are boring their students. The teacher of the dyslexic daughter wouldn't even stay after school to help her with her reading. She wouldn't even stop to help the little girl when she was being bullied or laughed at in class. It scares me to know that there might be teachers like this in the real world. How much education can a student get if the teachers themselves are the bullies.
One of the main reasons why I wanted to become an educator was to help children and inspire them to become a better and more educated person. Watching these films actually motivated me even more to achieve this goal because I do not want to be seen like this by future students or parents. It irritated me how apathetic and inconsiderate these teachers were to their students. They were all so stubborn and closed-minded. They couldn't even take a second to look at things through the student's perspective. These type of learning environments play a huge affect on a person's self-esteem and their reflection of themselves. How are students supposed to be successful in the future if educators don't give them the motivation to do so. According to this article, http://jcp.proscenia.net/publications/articles_mlr/walsh/teacher.html, the media does this because it needs an antagonist in order to have a protagonist.
At the end of the movie To Sir, With Love, the main character finally gets the job he always wanted as an engineer. I was really happy to hear the teachers tell him, 'Anybody can be an engineer, but teaching this mob is... well I wish I had your gift," and "If you must leave, go to another school. You can't waste a marvelous talent on modern electronics". I agree with these quotes because it's definitely one thing to teach, but another to inspire.
I completely agree with you Felicia. The media portrays teachers as people who hate their jobs and don't care about the kids they are instructing, which is obviously false. I think being a teacher is an incredibly hard job and teachers are the first people to advocate for their students. I understand that these are supposed to be inspirational movies, but I feel like most teachers truly love their jobs and want to have an impact on their lives.
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