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An Inside Look at Teaching in America
Few movies can entertain, inspire, and bring back memories while looking toward the future. American Teacher is one such movie, chronicling the lives of four teachers from around the United States.
It is a movie that goes beyond just living; it is about the foundation of America, the reason why we have become the nation we are today. Since the movie takes a look at how complex and significant this is, those of us outside direct contact with the education system can formulate new opinions based on inside information.
Narrated by Matt Damon, American Teacher brings these personal experiences to a wider audience, giving a very different impression about the teaching profession that few outside the educational community see. Witness how the teachers make connections with the students, families, and ultimately to the world with the work that they are doing every day.
The constant problem facing education today is teacher retention–the problem from which the others stem. In an interview with Encore magazine, one of the film’s producers Ninive Calegari says, “Ultimately I would like to change how we value our teaching profession and I would like to see teachers being able to earn a legitimate salary so that they can stay in the profession and combat the other challenges together.”
Unfortunately, it is not just schools that are dealing with the regular change–the students are the suffering just as much having to adjust constantly. The film addresses why these teachers and schools are struggling with retention. Four different teachers from urban to rural, charter to public, literally coast to coast are all struggling with similar problems. “I think we have an unbelievable opportunity right now, we have over half of our teachers are eligible to retire in the next ten years and so we have a chance to change some of the cultural norms and expectations,” Ninive says about the positive theme that is surrounding the film.
A good teacher can make a life altering impact on a student, and similarly, a bad teacher can create the equal and opposite reaction. The problem is that the best college minds are not concerning themselves with being teachers. They are more interested in pursuing other career goals. Although money may be the underlying cause, prestige most likely has more to do with it. College students are not staying up at night worried they cannot become a teacher like they are with getting into law or medical school. If you can imagine what it would be like for the smartest people to be teaching, there is so much potential to be had. To learn to succeed, you must be taught by someone who has succeeded and has become something to aspire to.
This is an exciting time, a little nerve wracking, but nonetheless, it holds great potential. American Teacher is a look at what could happen if the education system takes either turn. Watch the movie, if for no other reason than to bring back fond memories of your own classroom experiences and the teachers that helped make you who you are today, and to open the dialogue of the importance of what education means emotionally, culturally, and economically.
To teach is to create potential, and by watching the struggles of these four vastly different teachers, we can see the similarities among all of them and ultimately see America for what it is–the sum of all of its parts. As Ninive so nicely put it, “We wouldn’t work on this, volunteer, if we didn’t think that it was possible that a profound change could happen.”
Opens Friday, September 30th at the Empire AMC Cinemas at 1:00 pm and 7:15 pm
buy tickets here.