To Sir, with Love’ (1967)
© Sony Pictures
Sidney Poitier is the quintessential inspirational teacher. He plays an idealistic engineer-turned-teacher who ends up in an East End London school where the staff has given up on the rowdy, incorrigible students. Things start rough but once he throws out the textbooks and decides to teach the kids about life rather than square roots and split infinitives, he begins to win their trust and respect. The film deals with discrimination based on both race and economics. Poitier is perfect as the man the kids come to refer to as “Sir.” Judy Geeson and Lulu were reunited with Poitier in the TV sequel directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
2. ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’ (1939)
© Warner Home Video
Robert Donat shocked everyone by winning the Best Actor Oscar over Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler. But Donat’s performance as the beloved Mr. Chips apparently endeared him to Academy voters. His character was modeled on author James Hilton’s old classics master, W.H. Balgarnie, who taught for a half century at The Leys public school in Cambridge. The film was later remade as a musical with Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark.
3. ‘Stand and Deliver’ (1988)
© Warner Home VideoEdward James Olmos plays real life teacher Jaime Escalante, a Los Angeles teacher who inspires his underachieving students to learn calculus to boost their self-esteem. But they do so well in their AP testing that their success prompts accusations that they cheated. Ironically, the real Escalante ended up losing his position as math department chair at Garfield High and eventually left the school and returned to his native Bolivia to teach.
4. ‘Up the Down Staircase’ (1967)
© Warner Home VideoSandy Dennis plays teacher Sylvia Barrett from Bel Kaufman’s best-selling novel. Barrett is a rookie teacher who has to put the theories she learned getting her degree into practice at the racially mixed Calvin Coolidge High School. Barrett’s triumph is not only in reaching many of the students but also in being able to maintain her compassion and dedication in the face of overwhelming obstacles. She had to contend not only with tough teens that didn’t trust her but also an administration that didn’t place much value on her students. The film was shot at a real New York City School.
5. ‘Conrack’ (1974)
© Playhouse Video (on VHS)In the book The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy chronicled his experiences as a white teacher assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina where most of the people were poor and black. Jon Voight plays Conroy who came to be known as Conrack by the kids who mispronounced his name. This intimate film proves you don’t need a big city school as the setting for an inspirational tale of a teacher and his students.
6. ‘To Be and To Have’ (2002, France)
© Films du Losange / New Yorker Films (on VHS)A one-room school in rural France is the setting for this documentary portrait of teacher Georges Lopez. Exhibiting amazing patience, Lopez must deal with students ranging in age from four to eleven. A wonderful portrait of a truly dedicated teacher. Another deeply affecting, small scale portrait of a classroom.
7. ‘Freedom Writers’ (2007)
© Paramount Home EntertainmentHilary Swank plays real life teacher Erin Gruwell who takes on freshman English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. The school is racially diverse but not well integrated, with students sticking to their own ethnic groups. Gruwell proves to be naïve and out of her element yet her dedication to finding a way to reach these troubled kids is truly inspirational and moving. In real life, a number of Gruwell’s students have themselves turned to teaching because of her.
8. ‘Blackboard Jungle’ (1955)
© Warner Home VideoTwelve years before he would find himself in front of a classroom, Sidney Poitier found himself seated at a desk in Glenn Ford’s classroom. Ford’s English teacher is based on Evan Hunter who wrote about his experiences teaching in a violent South Bronx school. The film marked the debut of Vic Morrow who played one of the school hoodlums.
9. ‘The Miracle Worker’ (1962)
© MGMAnne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as her unwilling and unruly student Helen Keller won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, respectively, for their work. The two had originally created the roles on Broadway, and Duke would later go on to play Sullivan in a TV movie version of the story. Sullivan’s determination to reach the blind and deaf Keller epitomizes how a good teacher can make an amazing impact on a student.
10. ‘The Great Debaters’ (2007)
© Genius ProductsDenzel Washington directed and starred in this story of professor Melvin B. Tolson of Wiley College in Texas. Set in the 1930s, the film focuses on how he formed the school’s first debate team and managed to challenge prejudices to get his team to face off with Ivy League Harvard. Washington is tough, intelligent, and passionate as a teacher with a cause.
Bonus Pick: Outside the traditional classroom I have to go with Yoda as the best and most inspirational teacher as the Jedi Master in The Empire Strikes Back. “Do or do not, there is no try.” ‘Nuff said.
Extra Credit Picks: Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting, Dangerous Minds, Educating Rita, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Lean on Me, and The Class.