Earlier this week, we had a superintendent conference day. For the second time in three months, the district superintendent made us sit through the video attached below, as well as another collection of samples of teaching as shown in various movies.
I have a serious, serious problem with comparing real-life teachers to Hollywood's depiction of teaching. It's unrealistic of the people making the comparisons, and unfair to the teachers who are being measured against these fictitious examples.
Case in point: the video attached below, is from Man On Fire. When you watch it, you will see a man instructing a swimmer on how to improve her start time off of the block.
It is, yes, inspirational. But here is where it differs from reality:
1. The student is motivated. Swimming is what she wants to do. She is competitive and craves the idea of beating another swimmer's time. In the clip she does not once whine, complain, or ask why she has to do this thing. Compare this to students who attend mandatory core classes in which they have no intrinsic interest, but which they must pass in order to get out of school eventually. Their goal is to Get Out...they don't have an interest in continuing to swim to an even higher level of achievement.
2. The instructor in the clip uses drill as a method of instruction. He starts and stops the swimmer over and over and over. This is ABSOLUTELY what is necessary to instill basic skills...not higher-level thinking, but basic skills...and one must have basic skills before one can engage in meaningful higher-level thinking. However, in the video clip, the drill is shown as a montage (as such things often are). That's because drills, by their very nature, become monotonous as the information becomes closer to getting ingrained into the student's mind and habits. Drills are necessary, but they're not always fun, they are frequently frustrating, and real life doesn't come with a "montage" setting. (Please note that the other clip of Hollywood educators shown by the superintendent the same day included the Latin teacher from Dead Poets' Society drilling students on conjugation as an example of what NOT to do.)
3. Nowhere in the clip do we see any neighbors coming up and berating the trainer for speaking firmly to this little girl, scaring her, or pushing her to continue. Nobody is yelling at him and telling him he doesn't know what he's doing. Nobody is getting in his way, and nobody is getting in the little girl's way. In fact, there is a collection of neighbors at the end who are cheering this little girl on, giving her tons of external validation to support her internal sense of achievement. Do I even need to begin to explain how this is different from the environment of judgement, suspicion, and opposition in which public school teachers operate? Do I need to describe the experience of being called names by a parent when I call home to explain that the student is failing because he has been cutting class and not doing the work?
It is absolutely unrealistic to compare real-life teachers to these pretty and inspirational Hollywood conceptions. I would even say it is emotionally abusive. And I'm tired of being on the receiving end of that crap.
<RANT MODE SET TO HOLDING>
