Digg it!I spent more than half my life in school and I don’t effin’ remember a single teacher that made an impact on me.
Big round of applause to our education system.
I do hope that I am an isolated case because the world needs some badass teachers. Teachers like the ones we have on the list.
They managed to really shape the future of this beautiful world of hours.
10. Gridiron Gang: Sean Porter (Dwayne Johnson)
Year: 2006
Director: Phil Joanou
In the Kilpatrick juvenile detention center, the supervisor and former football player Sean Porter sees the lack of discipline, self-esteem, union and perspective in the teenage interns and proposes to prepare a football team to play in one league. He is supported by his superiors and his successful experience changes the lives of many young kids.
9. Dangerous Minds
Year: 1995
Director: John N. Smith
Louanne Johnson is an ex-marine, hired as a teacher in a high-school in a poor area of the city. She has recently separated from her husband. Her friend, also teacher in the school, got the temporary job for her. After a terrible reception from the students, she tries unconventional methods of teaching (using karate, Bob Dylan lyrics etc) to gain the trust of the students.
8. Lean On Me: Principal Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman)
Year: 1989
Director: John G. Avildsen
An extraordinary situation calls for an extraordinary solution. At strife-torn Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, that solution had a name: Principal “Crazy Joe” Clark. With a bullhorn in one hand and a baseball bat in the other, he slammed the door on losers at Eastside. Brought in as a last resort to stop the state government from taking control of the school, Clark chained the doors shut to keep troublemakers OUT and achievers IN. Parents fought him. Teachers resented him. Even his own boss doubted him. But lots of kids loved him. Clark turned Eastside around, appearing on the cover of “Time Magazine” and becoming a national symbol of tough-love education. “If you don’t succeed in life,” Clark tells his students, “don’t blame your backgrounds. Don’t blame the Establishment. Blame YOURSELVES.” His message is simple: Don’t lean on excuses, drugs, crime, or anger. LEAN ON ME…and learn.
7. The Karate Kid: Mr. Kesuke Miyagi (Pat Morita)
Year: 1984
Director: John G. Avildsen
Though not a traditional classroom teacher-student situation, the movie focuses on the journey of
Daniel is new in town, and is getting picked on by the local bullies, who all are adept in karate. Determined to stick up for himself, Daniel begins to teach himself karate, only to discover that the caretaker at his apartment seems to be a grand master in karate. Agreeing to teach Daniel, Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel that there is more to karate than violence, and perhaps the best way to solve the problem he has with the bullies is in the All Valley Karate Championship.
6. Freedom Writers: Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank)
Year: 2007
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Hilary Swank plays the role of Erin Gruwell, a new, excited schoolteacher who leaves the safety of her hometown, Newport Beach, to teach at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, a formerly high achieving school which has recently had an integration program put in place. Her enthusiasm is quickly challenged when she realizes that her class are all “at-risk” students, also known as “unteachables”, and not the eager students she was expecting. The students segregate themselves into racial groups in the classroom, fights break out, and eventually most of the students stop turning up to class. Not only does Gruwell meet opposition from her students, but she also has a hard time with her department head, who refuses to let her teach her students with books in case they get damaged and lost, and instead tells her to focus on teaching them discipline and obedience. One night, two students, Eva (April Lee Hernández), a Hispanic girl and narrator for much of the film, and a Cambodian refugee, Sindy (Jaclyn Ngan), find themselves in the same convenience store. Another student, Grant Rice (Armand Jones) is frustrated at losing an arcade game and demands a refund from the owner. When he storms out, Eva’s boyfriend attempts a drive-by shooting, wanting to kill Grant but misses, accidentally killing Sindy’s boyfriend. As Eva is a witness, she must testify at court; she intends to protect her own kind in her testimony. At school, Gruwell intercepts a racist drawing of one of her students and uses it to teach them about the Holocaust. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys them composition books to record their diaries, in which they talk about their experiences of being abused, seeing their friends die, and being evicted. Determined to reform her students, she takes two part-time jobs to pay for more books and spends more time at school, to the disappointment of her husband (Patrick Dempsey). Her students start to behave with respect and learn more. A transformation is especially visible in one of her students, Marcus (Jason Finn). She invites several Holocaust survivors to talk with her class about their experiences and takes them on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Meanwhile, her unorthodox teaching methods are scorned by her colleagues and department chair Margaret Campbell (Imelda Staunton). The next year comes, and Gruwell teaches her class again for sophomore (second) year. In class, when reading The Diary of Anne Frank, they invite Miep Gies (Pat Carroll), the woman who sheltered Anne Frank from the German soldiers to talk to them. After they raise the money to bring her over, she tells them her experiences hiding Anne Frank. When Marcus tells her that she is his hero, she denies it, claiming she was merely doing the right thing. Her denial causes Eva to rethink lying during her testimony. When she testifies, she finally breaks down and tells the truth, much to some of her family members’ dismay. Meanwhile, Gruwell asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary. Her husband divorces her and Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. She fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to allow her to teach her kids’ junior and senior year. The film ends with a note that Gruwell successfully brought many of her students to graduation and college.
If you liked this list you should also check out:
- Top 10 Evil Deans and teachers in Films
- Top 10 Rockstar Geeks
- Top 10 Best Movie Sequels
- Top 10 Movies With Multiple Major Storylines Part 2
- Top 10 Unexpected Celebrities Practicing Martial Arts Part 2
