Hindsight

Day Three:  Educational themes in film

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

What a sweet, romantic, little film this is.  Goodbye, Mr. Chips,  starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson is Based on the James Hilton 1934 novel.  It’s the story of an aging former headmaster at a private boy’s school in England.  The film is told in flashback has Chips (Donat) recalls his career as a teacher and how his teaching intertwined with his personal life.  What do I love about this film?  Well, how the story navigates the process of becoming a teacher, the missteps, the small victories of connection, and chance to always do it better.  Plus, I am also a sucker for the whole anglophile thing here, the Ivy trimmed buildings, the very British way of running a private school. Mr. Chips was made by the British MGM division in England and used a local school outside of London to film the exteriors.   The flashback starts with Chips first days on the job as a Latin teacher.  The young teacher is serious, strict and disliked by the students for his lack of humor.  Eventually however, Chips finds his way, when He falls in love, and the woman named Kathy (Greer Garson) whom he marries.   Her personal energy, love of life and intellectual curiosity encourage Chips to come out of his shell and teach more humanely.  As the years pass Chips continues to teach, eventually having grandsons of his first students. 

 On Chips deathbed, he overhears a friend whispering that it is a pity that Chips never had children, Chip’s responds, “But you're wrong. I have! Thousands of them, thousands of them--and all boys."