Ray is a great teacher. There are lots of teachers here, and there have been lots of films made about teaching. How many can you think of? I can think of an easy three off the top of my head:

�Goodbye Mr. Chips�
�Finding Forester�
�The Blackboard Jungle�

To Sir, With Love (great film!)
Dead Poet's Society
Up the Down Staircase
The Nutty Professor
Mr Holland's Opus

Teachers
The Principal
Stand And Deliver
Uuummm... that one with Michelle Pfeifer, or WAS that Stand And Deliver? Then the one with Edward James Olmos. I get the titles mixed up.

Although "Teachers" is not in the same class as some of the others named, it's always been a favorite of mine. For one thing, the best teacher in the entire school was not really a teacher, but a man who had escaped from a mental institution and had wandered into the school where he was mistaken for a long-term sub. He was a fantastic history teacher, doing all kinds of renenactments and other things to make history come alive. The students were always so excited to come to his class. And then there was the other extreme--probably the worst teacher in the whole school. All he did was train his students to pick up a worksheet from the Out box when they walked in the door, read the text and complete the worksheet during the period, and put it in the In box on their way out of the room. He never said one word to them, and just sat behind his newspaper all day. But finally one day, early in the morning, he had a heart attack and died as he was sitting behind the paper. Not one student even noticed because he had them so trained to just walk in and pick up their worksheet with no interaction with him at all. The whole day this went on, with students coming and going and picking up and turning in those lousy worksheets. It was really kind of comical. The whole movie was fun like this, and if you've never seen it, I'd recommend it. It's no "Dead Poet's Society," but it's entertaining and really points out some true things about teaching. By the way, I've recently seen previews for a new "Teachers" TV show. The previews really look bad, but of course I'll have to check it out. "Boston Public" was truly horrendous, too. When a teacher shot a gun in the classroom just to get their attention, and then there were no repercussions other than a scolding, they lost me, but I hung in there for a few more weeks until another teacher had an affair with a student.

My favorite teacher TV show was �Room 222�. I wish they would do more like that today. Also a portion of the �Anne Of Green Gables� TV films had strong teacher elements.

Just thought of another one.

�The Paper Chase�



[This message has been edited by Chapter 31 (edited 03-15-2006).]

Tom Brown's Schooldays
Good Morning, Miss Dove
The Emperors' Club

Cantor's Grade
Before That Afternoon
Mr. Mulvey and the Seven Secret Lockers
Indiana Jones
Crunched

Most powerful of all times:
"W-a-t-e-r" "T-e-a-c-h-e-r"

The Miracle Worker!

Helen Keller's life with Anne Sullivan at her side.

(I teach this play with sign language as a part of the unit. Now, close your eyes tightly, firmly cover your ears with your hands, and say not a word for a minute, and then consider a lifetime of such an existence!)

Good on you, Butch!
Great film and a true story to boot!

Now, how about "Teacher" in Bradbury's "Jack-In-The-Box"? Gave me the creeps when I first read it.
The RB Theatre version was pretty good.

I'm in here looking for Sean "crinkley nose" Connery, wondering if we are congregating for St. Patrick's Day this Friday. I will bring green O'Douls. Everyone please bring a dish also. (holding my hand up because I do beleive in telekinesis, I saw you Braling)
Alright Chapter31, I'm chilling, no more references to what I had imagined your nose to be doing. Can you imagine the coffee shop drama if we all get together in Waukegan?!

The teacher in The Wall was a prime example how alot of my teachers were, but not all of them. The great teachers made you feel important and heard, and made teaching so much fun, you didn't even realize that you were learning until later, and you actually looked forward to going to class! I loved when his wife makes him eat his veggies at home in The Wall. I got to actually go to that concert in L.A. 1980.

Of all those listed so far I think �The Miracle Worker� deserves to be at the top. This version of the story has such wonderful performances from Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. Oh, how I miss Anne Bancroft. And she was in that sweet film with Anthony Hopkins called �84 Charing Cross Road�. All about love and books.

I graduated in 1980 and we sang, "Hey, teachers! Leave us kids alone!" at the end of our Senior Wing Ding. That and a few other hijinks prevented there ever being another Senior Wing Ding at that school. A bit sad to be in on the end of a proud tradition.

Hijinks, good word. Yes I pulled a few myself that I'm not too proud of. Live and learn.

My sister was in a theater troupe called Hijinx.

I think I heard Pixie or Dixie utter something like that a few times...