GGS 10.46: Start Shutting Up
It’s World Teacher Day (appreciate teachers every day, you). So, we watched some comedy, action, & drama centered around teachers. Thanks for all you do: AP Bio, The Substitute, Stand & Deliver, The Principal, Lean on Me, Dangerous Minds, Akeelah & the Bee.
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Geek on!
Start shutting up! (For all y’all who’ve watched “A.P. Bio.”)
It’s World Teacher Day, and at Geek Girl Soup we’re celebrating teachers by watching some teacher-centered movies and shows.
We start with the hilarious—and totally inappropriate—“A.P. Bio” (Peacock). A philosophy professor from Harvard gets fired from Harvard and has to leave Harvard to go back home to Toledo, Ohio. He takes over a class of A.P. biology instead of teaching philosophy at Harvard. (Did I mention that he was a professor at Harvard? I don’t think that I mention Harvard as many times as he does in a single episode.) Instead of actually teaching biology, he entangles his students in his schemes to bring down his archnemesis—a philosophy professor-cum-bestselling-author. Susan says not to bother watching beyond season 1.
“The Substitute” (IMDb TV) stars Tom Berenger as a retired mercenary who goes undercover as a substitute teacher after his fiancée is attacked in the school where she works as a teacher. He investigates the gang that attacked her and uncovers… guess what… that drugs are being sold in the school. The school must be cleaned up!
“Stand and Deliver” (HBO Max) is a biopic that features Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante. Mr. Escalante gives up a job as an engineer and takes over a basic math class in a school in East Los Angeles. He tells his students that math is “the great equalizer.” He kicks out kids who don’t do the work and challenges all the students to push themselves harder than they thought possible, not only to pass algebra, but to take and pass A.P. calculus.
“The Principal” (rent) stars Jim Belushi as a teacher who becomes the principal of a gang- and drug-riddled school. Admittedly, this is a paltry version of…
“Lean on Me” (HBO Max), which is a biopic that stars Morgan Freeman as “Crazy” Joe Clark, who becomes the principal of a gang- and drug-riddled school in the late 1980s where he was once a hippie teacher in 1960s. His unorthodox (and dangerous) methods earned him the moniker “crazy.” He immediately expels all known drug dealers. He locks the exterior doors with chains. (Can you say, “Fire hazard”?) He walks around the halls with a baseball bat. He takes a kid onto the roof of the school and urges him to jump. He fires the music teacher. (Yeah, ‘cause the arts don’t matter.) And he belittles his ever-loyal assistant principal. But… he does “clean up” the school. And the students love him.
In contrast to Joe Clark’s stance on Mozart, in “Dangerous Minds” (Hulu) (not a true story), Michelle Pfeiffer teaches her dropout-prone students the poetry of Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas. She lures them into doing their homework with karate moves, candy bars, an unauthorized trip to an amusement park, and a contest to go to dinner with her at a fancy LA restaurant. Learning for learning’s sake! (I think Mr. Escalante did the teaching the best.)
Finally, in “Akeela and the Bee” (Peacock), professor-on-sabbatical-with-serious-baggage Laurence Fishburn helps spelling prodigy Akeela hone her spelling skills so she can make it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee—on her first try. The most important thing we learn here is that the whole community comprises Akeela’s teachers. Her mom, her brothers, her friends, gang members, the mailman, the dude at the grocery store, her principal, and her actual teachers. They all help her learn her words. Even her number-one competitor.
Thank you to all teachers! We do love y’all!
Next week… is the week… we wait for… all… year… long. It’s the annual rewatch of “The Leftovers” (HBO Max)! The (best) show (ever) ran from 2014 to 2017. But Departure Day happened on October 14, 2011. So… this will be the 10th anniversary of the Sudden Departure. We will have a lot to discuss. We’ve also been listening to the audiobook (by Tom Perrotta). We’ll be doing a compare-and-contrast for a bit. You still have time to prepare! Watch at least the first and last episodes of all three seasons. Plus, of course, s2 e8 (“A Most Powerful Adversary”), s2 e9 (“International Assassin”), s3 e4 (“G’Day Melbourne”), and s3 e7 (“The Most Powerful Man in the World (And His Identical Twin Brother)”). That’s just 10 episodes in one week. You can do it!!!
