GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL STARTS WITH THESE
Films, TV shows tackle education with grit, humor
chool will soon be back in session, or maybe it will, or it will for some students and not for others, and don’t even get us started on who will be wearing masks and who will not.
It’s confusing, is what it is. And when we get confused, we like to do what Americans always do when they don’t know how to behave in certain circumstances: We watch how characters handle the same issues in the movies and on TV.
It was in just that spirit that we compiled this collection of some of our favorite movies and television shows about school. We limited ourselves to high school films and shows because no one really makes them about elementary school, and college just doesn’t have that same back-to-school feel.
In addition, there are so many great shows and films about high school sports that we decided not to include them here.
These shows entertain, enlighten and inform us. They can make us nostalgic for our old school days - or make us glad we’re finished with them. For people still in school, the films can serve as a kind of guide through their turbulent teenage years.
We still don’t know what to do about masks, but we’ll bet they will be a prominent feature in the films and shows to come in the next few years.
Film
“Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939):
It’s one of the all-time great feel-good tearjerker movies. Robert Donat stars as a teacher who, over the decades, changes from awkward and unliked to universally beloved, all because of the love of his wife, the sublime Greer Garson in her first role.
“Blackboard Jungle” (1955): Perhaps the best of the genre of films showing an idealistic new teacher coming to an inner-city school and being severely tested by the street-tough students, eventually helping at least a few of them. Glenn Ford stars as the teacher, with a not-young Sidney Poitier as the student who is the most rebellious but also the most promising.
“To Sir, With Love” (1967): Twelve years after playing the troubled student in “Blackboard Jungle,” Poitier stars as the innovative teacher dealing with troubled students and molding their minds and their lives. Poitier is at his most Poitierish here - it was the same year as “In the Heat of the Night” - but perhaps the film is most remembered for its popular theme song.
“Carrie” (1976): Maybe it was a bad idea to make fun of the shy and latedeveloping Carrie after all. Sissy Spacek became a star in the role of a bullied teen with unsuspected talents. The film is based on Stephen King ’s first published novel, so the vengeful climax is bloody, violent and somehow richly satisfying.
“Grease” (1978): The longest-running (at the time) Broadway musical was turned into a megahit movie. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-john’s characters and their friends may have been caricatures, but they were highly entertaining caricatures. And that soundtrack, including a couple of songs written specifically for the film, had the whole country singing along.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ” (1986): This lighthearted comedy is less about school than the joys of not being in school. Matthew Broderick is charming as a student who decides to take the day off with his girlfriend and enjoy all the fun that Chicago has to offer. The John Hughes film also features a cherry-red Ferrari and the most boring economics lecture ever given.
“Dead Poets Society” (1989): This time it’s Robin Williams in the role of the noble teacher with the unorthodox style who makes a difference in the lives of his students. The story here is touched by tragedy, but perhaps the film is most notable for introducing a whole generation to the term carpe diem and the Walt Whitman poem “O Captain! My Captain!”
“Heathers” (1989): The filmmakers invented an entirely new language of slang for this pitch-black comedy about a rebellious girl (Winona Ryder) who falls for the school’s baddest of bad boys (Christian Slater). Together, they take revenge on the school’s ruling clique, but he is more into it than she. It’s a cynical comedy and cheerfully nihilistic.
“House Party” (1990): Now considered a cult film, it’s a blast and a half. Written and directed by East St. Louis’ own Reginald Hudlin, the comedy features early hip-hop stars Kid n’ Play as
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