Bad Teacher Is Bad for Teachers Mary M
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This article was downloaded by: [Wake Forest University] On: 12 July 2013, At: 08:07 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Popular Film and Television Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjpf20 Bad Teacher Is Bad for Teachers Mary M. Dalton a a Wake Forest University Published online: 18 Jun 2013. To cite this article: Mary M. Dalton (2013) Bad Teacher Is Bad for Teachers, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 41:2, 78-87, DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2013.787352 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2013.787352 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. 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Dalton DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2013.787352 Abstract: This article establishes a context for evaluating bad teacher characters and provides a close reading of the 2011 film Bad Teacher by focusing on the plot, the depiction of major characters, and aes- thetic elements followed by an assessment of the implications of this film for audiences. Keywords: curriculum, films, Hollywood, popular culture, teachers, teaching By Mary M. Dalton Bad Teacher Is Downloaded by [Wake Forest University] at 08:07 12 July 2013 or twenty years, I have tion are surprisingly slight, though there Election and Half Nelson that compli- studied representa- are some differences between patterns cate how audiences see the good teacher tions of teachers in displayed in Hollywood films and on character (Dalton, “Revising the Holly- popular culture and the implications of American television (Dalton, The Hol- wood Curriculum”) and the remarkable Fthose depictions for teachers, students, lywood Curriculum: Teachers in the film Elephant, which presents a school and those who interact with teachers or Movies; Dalton and Linder). Only rarely as a collective social space where the students (Dalton, “The Hollywood Cur- does a film emerge that challenges pre- point of view of students marginalizes riculum: Who Is the ‘Good’ Teacher?”). conceptions and expectations. High- adults, including teachers (Dalton, “The By employing categorization schemes lights are revisionist teacher movies like Hollywood View: Protecting the Status to examine how Hollywood casts teach- ers on film and television, broad pat- terns have emerged of “good” and “bad” Bad Teacher is altogether different from the films educators, and additional research has revealed that these general archetypes released before it because, in the final analysis, vary in predictable ways according to the sex of the teacher, but that dif- every teacher is revealed to be a bad teacher ferences in characterization related to race, social class, and sexual orienta- operating within a corrupt educational system. 78 Bad Teacher (2011). Directed by Jake Kasdan. Shown from left: Justin Timberlake, Cameron Diaz. Photo courtesy of Claridge Pictures/ Photofest. (Color figure available online.) Bad for Teachers Downloaded by [Wake Forest University] at 08:07 12 July 2013 Quo in Schools Onscreen”). If those are also numerous characters in main- are highlights among the hundreds of stream Hollywood films playing the Context teacher movies I have seen, one 2011 bad teacher role, usually providing an When I started writing about teach- release presents a high-profile lowlight unyielding, one-dimensional contrast ers in the movies, there were few voices that is both different and disappointing. to the good teacher or serving as an already engaged in the conversation: Bad Teacher is not a lowlight solely unsuccessful foil in a supporting role Stanley Aronowitz, William Ayers, Rob because the main character is a bad opposite a more prominently featured Edelman, Henry Giroux, and Roger I. teacher. There have been a number of good teacher. Bad Teacher is altogether Simon. Now, the conversation is much provocative films in which good teach- different from the films released before richer. While my own perspective as a ers cross the proverbial line to do bad it because, in the final analysis, every scholar has remained basically one of things (such as Election and Half Nel- teacher is revealed to be a bad teacher critical media studies employing cur- son, mentioned earlier), notable por- operating within a corrupt educational riculum theory, feminist theory, queer traits of complex characters deploying system. This article will establish a con- theory, narrative theory, aesthetic analy- their influence unethically with tragic text for evaluating bad teacher charac- sis, and other theoretical frameworks as consequences (The Prime of Miss Jean ters and provide a close reading of Bad needed to explicate the texts at hand, Brodie), and softcore films featuring Teacher focusing on the plot of the film, others have brought more direct appli- teachers as sex objects (or even a mur- the depiction of major characters, and cations into play in ways that, I believe, derous seducer in Xtra Credit). There the aesthetic treatment of the story. expand the conversation meaningfully. 79 80 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television Some of the most interesting work published in recent years recounts how The bad teacher in the movies is generally professors of education use popular cul- ture to prepare pre-service teachers for presented as a counterpoint to the good teacher the classroom. Ronald Soetaert, Andre Mottart, Ive Verdoodt, Dierdre Glenn lionized on celluloid or as a potential foil for a Paul, and James Trier contribute to this strand of discourse. Jacqueline Bach, band of teenagers. Robert C. Bulman, and Alan S. Marcus are among the scholars linking cinema to particular disciplines to provide use- ful analyses and resource guides. Some that established form, a set of common ers in the movies is their outsider status, of the more recent books go beyond the characteristics defines the good teacher though this characterization says more traditional study of educators in cinema in movies; I have termed this the Holly- about the rugged individualism champi- to include other popular forms, such as wood Model, and I outlined the traits in oned in Hollywood film than anything Education in Popular Culture: Telling The Hollywood Curriculum: Teachers in particular about teacher characters. Tales on Teachers and Learners by Roy in the Movies (ch. 2). This model con- In terms of linking an actual theory Fisher, Ann Harris, and Christine Jarvis structs the good teacher as an outsider of curriculum to the movies, I have em- and Teacher TV: Sixty Years of Teach- not liked by other teachers, someone ployed a schema developed by Dwayne ers on Television, which I co-authored involved with students on a personal Huebner. When Huebner discusses his with Laura R. Linder. The discussions level, someone who learns from stu- five value frameworks for curricular in these works are vigorous and useful; dents, someone who personalizes the thought—technical, political, scientific, this is but an overview intended to con- curriculum to meet everyday needs in aesthetic, and ethical—he argues that vey the scope of the conversations tak- students’ lives, and someone who expe- none of the five values he proposes ex- ing place, conversations this special is- riences conflict with administrators. The ists in a vacuum separate from the other sue of the Journal of Popular Film and Hollywood Model of the good teacher four and that none is inherently good or Television will surely expand. is immediately recognizable to anyone bad. I have proposed that Hollywood The history of feature-length, nar- who has watched many American films constructs good teachers as those who rative cinema is not quite one hundred because of the iconic stature accorded use some combination of aesthetic– years old at the time of this writing. Yet, these characters, but much less atten- ethical–political values in the sense that movies about teachers date back to the tion has been paid to the antithesis of Huebner writes of them (Dalton, “The early days of the form, and the iconic the good teacher, such as the outrageous Hollywood Curriculum: Who Is the good teacher became a staple charac- middle school teacher Elizabeth Halsey ‘Good’ Teacher?”; The Hollywood Cur- ter during the Hollywood studio era, (Cameron Diaz) in Bad Teacher. riculum: Teachers in the Movies). The which had its heyday in the 1930s and The bad teacher is generally pre- bad teacher in the movies is generally 1940s.