Film review: American Teacher

Posted by on June 06, 2011

‘Time for a film like this’

In a review of “American Teacher,” a new documentary produced by author Dave Eggers and former teacher Nínive Clements Calegari, Anthony Rebora writes in Education Week that the film seeks to counteract popular misconceptions about the teaching profession. The documentary, which is narrated by Matt Damon, portrays five high-performing educators from different parts of the country as they face daily challenges and manage the logistics of their lives. According to Rebora, “examples of the teachers’ obvious professionalism and skill are set against, sometimes to comic effect, the near-Dickensian nature of their working conditions.” The subjects must buy their own supplies, work impossible hours, and endure what Rebora calls injustices. For all teachers profiled, the problem of how to make ends meet on their minimal-growth salaries is “a grueling, intractable reality.” The film intersperses the teachers’ stories with commentaries and statistics on teacher pay and workloads, rising attrition, falling student achievement, and the notable differences in ways teachers are treated and supported in academically high-achieving countries like Finland, Singapore, and South Korea. Rebora states that the film’s overall effect is powerful, and could generate important conversations when it is publicly released this fall.

Read more: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2011/05/the_struggles_of_the_american_teacher.html