Things Behind The Films

By Dr. Who
Reality: We teachers need to teach

In the films, we can see good teachers are

eight hours a day, and then three to

portrayed as kind, talented, funny, persistent,

five hours contacting parents,

brave, righteous, reliable and so forth.

preparing for class, participate in

Moreover, good teachers are projected on

the screen as outsiders, disliked by other
teachers and administrators who perceive
them as threats to the status quo. People
may wonder--do these teachers really exist
in our daily life? Or they are just iconic,
mythical teacher figures created by the
movie producers? In order to reveal this to
our audience, we interviewed some real life
teachers to see their comments on the
teacher movies.
Ms. Real: I have been a teacher since 1985.
In my opinion, the real life of a teacher in
U.S.A. has neither the highs nor the lows
portrayed on the silver screen. I understand
that no one would pay to see a teacher grade
tons of homework, therefore movie directors
should make their products entertaining and
profitable. However, these movies can
impact our audiences perception of
teachers, and further influence our education
culture. Therefore I must tell the public
something real. Here is an example.
Myth: Movie teachers only need to
focus on their teaching.

school meetings, and grading.

After interviewing Ms. Real, we also
contacted some Chinese teachers via Skype.
It seems that Chinese teachers dont approve
of gender roles in the movies. For example,
many Chinese movies portrayed female
teachers as dedicating to their students, and
working hard until the last minute of their
life. According to our interviewees, this is
highly misleading. They told us,
Teaching is a family friendly profession,
and we all have child and family to care
about. Its inhuman for describing us
teachers as workaholic and have no personal
life.