Day One, Back to School, Film with Educational Themes
To Sir with Love
Okay, the film is corny at time, but still gets me. This movie, To Sir With Love, was a happy accident that my dad took me to in the late 1960s. I didn't understand much of it, but the groovy kids, and the proud teacher were thrilling to watch. My dad had been a teacher, and I annoyed him with questions afterwards: How we these students like your students? Did you like teaching? Why do you think he stayed on as a teacher? Well Sidney Poitier as 'Sir' is perfectly cast as a man who only takes the teaching post in the east end of London to bide time until He can get a 'real' job as an Engineer. The teaching post however, takes over his life. Sir learns how unprepared these young men and woman are to succeed. Eventually Sir navigates his class, full of mild by today's standards, juvenile delinquents, with not kindness but respect. It is a movie about class yes, but also racism. The view of gender is a yawner, but so sixties. Seeing the London streets, hearing Lulu sing that lovely song with her one earring and bobbed haircut are just Delicious extras. This is a film that continues to inspire me as a teacher, the idea that to truly teach you have to first respect your students as individuals with their own heady histories.
This movie, To Sir With Love, was a happy accident that my dad took me to in the late 1960s. I didn't understand much of it, but the groovy kids, and the proud teacher were thrilling to watch. My dad had been a teacher, and I annoyed him with questions afterwards: How we these students like your students? Did you like teaching? Why do you think he stayed on as a teacher? Well Sidney Poitier as 'Sir' is perfectly cast as a man who only takes the teaching post in the east end of London to bide time until He can get a 'real' job as an Engineer. The teaching post however, takes over his life. Sir learns how unprepared these young men and woman are to succeed. Eventually Sir navigates his class, full of mild by today's standards, juvenile delinquents, with not kindness but respect. It is a movie about class yes, but also racism. The view of gender is a yawner, but so sixties. Seeing the London streets, hearing Lulu sing that lovely song with her one earring and bobbed haircut are just Delicious extras. This is a film that continues to inspire me as a teacher, the idea that to truly teach you have to first respect your students as individuals with their own heady histories.