Teachers Represented in Film

Stereotypes affect everyday lives, students mostly are affected towards this since children through on out are a branch of life. In Dweck’s article, a group was sent out to study everyday stereotypes that happen in school, “Their studies and ours also found that negatively stereotyped students (such as girls in math, or African-American and Hispanic students in math and verbal areas) showed substantial benefits from being in a growth-mindset workshop” (Brainology, Paragraph 29). And to quote Dweck’s explanation towards those stereotypes, “Stereotypes are typically fixed-mindset labels” (Brainology, Paragraph

Mr. Rose presents many descriptive vignettes of teaching professionals in his life who have influenced him both positively and negatively and whom he has retained for emulation or distinction. These characters in his life include teachers from grammar school throughout his college experience. All have in one way or another left a considerable imprint on his recollection of school and learning.

While reading Journal 1 of The Alternative and reflecting on the assignment giving, memories of teachers flooded through my mind. I am unabashed to admit that I believed some teachers to be poor at their job, and have more than once thought that perhaps this wasn’t the correct career path for them. One such teacher was my 7th and 8th grade science teacher, who believed public shaming to be the preferable way of teaching adolescents. When a student would answer a question wrong in class he couldn’t help but laugh as well as bring it up throughout the lesson, refusing to let the student move past their mistake. He chose to

Today, many believe that stereotypes have been eradicated throughout our modern world, this is far from the truth. Beverly Daniel Tatum, an author of several books including “Why Are Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” asks, “How did academic achievement become defined as exclusively white behavior?” Tatum has an interesting point, however stereotyping is not just about race it can be about gender bias, or body issues too. Ann DuCille, author of “From Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference” says; “Barbie 's body is a consumer object itself a vehicle for display of clothing and spectacular trappings of a wealthy teenage fantasy life”. Ducille gives a good example of body politics, and the importance of not only focusing on race. Thus, is a good example of how stereotypes are learned by how one is treated in school or at home. Education about racial identity, gender equality, and body shaming, to an extent, will help eliminate some forms of stereotyping and create a more understanding and equal society. Therefore schools are not the problem, stereotypes, however racist, sexist, or just plain mean, are learned at home and in schools from peers, parents and teachers alike.

These stereotypes of teachers inspire the general public by showing a “fairy-tale version” of what truly happens in the classroom. The movies make it look like there is always some huge triumph at the end of the day and everyone ends up learning what they need to learn. This does not always mean learning the classroom material. Breault states that in most of the movies studied the teachers are more focused on teaching life lessons as opposed to the basic knowledge that should be taught in the classroom. The article also discusses how the teaches are viewed as heroes who save the students and advocate for them outside of the classroom. The teachers in the movies are praised for never teaching with a textbook or teaching regular course curriculum. The pictures show that the real live classroom is a lot more structured than what is portrayed in

Our class was inspired by Shankar Vedantam’s piece to conduct research on stereotypes at Point Loma High School. We were provided questions by Ms. Roberts and asked one person in class and another outside of class. The ages of those interviewed ranged from freshmen to seniors in highschool. Later, we input our data in a Google form and later converted it into a summary data chart and spreadsheet. The results were sorted by ethnicity and gender. Using our results we were able to find trends/similarities of the impact/aftermath and responses of those who were interviewed

Clark’s work on identity and stereotyping has continued and has extended to not only minority groups, but to white-Americans and women as well. Research on prejudices and stereotyping has continued in the area of education. According to Steele (2004), the framework of one’s life can be controlled by their social identity and that individuals must contend to the prejudices and stereotypes that they socially must identify with. Further research suggests that those who are exposed to negative stereotypes are influenced either by believing or mimicking the stereotype or, both (Steele, 2004). Steele (2004) found that stereotypes have contributed to the underperformance of minority groups in the school setting. As suggested by Clark, Steele (2004) also believes that conforming to suggested stereotypes weakens the social identity and brings severe deficits to the ability of student to excel in the classroom. Clark’s ideas on stereotyping were elaborated in the notion that stereotype threat does not only affect minority groups, but can exhibit deficits in any group of individuals. For instance, Steele (2004) offers the example of white vs. black athletes and how in many sports (e.g. basketball or football) white athletes have shown to feel less competent in comparison to black athletes because of

The teachers profiled in “Unforgettable Miss Bessie”, “My Favorite Teacher”, and “And the Orchestra Played On” are remembered and admired by the narrators. Miss Bessie, Miss Hattie, and Mr. K. possessed significant qualities that made them remarkable educators. They inspired and encouraged students. They only wanted the best for their students and prepared them for their futures, enabling them to overcome difficulties in school. Besides the content of their subject matter these educators their taught students to believe that their lives and future all depends from themselves: whether they would choose the clean asphalt road or dirty, bumpy one.

Author and speaker of the compelling article Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results, Joanne Lipman informs the public on different teaching styles and which ones have the best results. Dabbling in the careers of journaling, editing, and writing, obviously attending Yale University has given Ms. Lipman many opportunities to succeed in life in different areas. Although, having such a sheltered life as a white and privileged woman will obviously give her a different perspective of this topic. Joanne is automatically given the upperhand and is taught from an early age a different way to think about different subjects. Ms. Lipman was fortunate enough to go to a high-ranking high school in New Jersey which could have molded her thoughts about teachers and their teaching strategies. When reading parts of the article we can find examples of her knowledge on the subject, “We’re in the midst of a national wave of self recrimination over the U.S. education system” (Lipman 4) the reader acquires the sense that she is exceptionally well informed on the topic of the education system. With this comprehension of the issue, I can assume that Ms. Lipman has primarily worked in the education field. The background of an author is an immensely important quality when it comes to their works of literature. Not only does it show their point of view, but also their bias which proves to be influential to the readers. Creative and factual, Joanne spreads her point throughout the article thoroughly,

Stereotypes affect people in many different ways. There are two sides to stereotypes, the victims and there aggressors. Unfortunately, we all have been a victim of stereotypes even with out us knowing it. Stereotypes hurt, but individuals handle the problem differently some feel belittled or embarrassed. Many victims of stereotypes can cause people to lose confidents in there self and many others in a psychological way, which can damage social and personal development. Kids that are victims of stereotypes are affected the worsted. Not only are the kids emotionally damaged the victim them selves can turn into the aggressor and stereotype others. The aggressors in many cases are individuals that have been victims of stereotypes, or brought up in a household or environment where people are constantly stereotyping other. People brought up in that kind of situation my stereotype others cause that is all they have come to know. Some refer to this person as ignorant, which is a harsh but accurate assumption. The definition of ignorance is the lack of logic. Ignorance is the main cause for people stereotyping others. There have been many discussions on how to get ride of stereotypes. My idea is to put a culture class in junior high or high schools and make it a mandatory class. Now if this were to happen it would compel students to study and understand cultures

In “To Teach the journey of a teacher” by William Ayers different teaching styles are introduced. The book teaches us that nobody is a perfect teacher. A couple myths from the book include time management is essential to teaching and you learn everything you need to know about teaching in college. Everyone will have off days when they are teaching and it is not going to go perfectly. Also, you cannot really understand teaching until you are actually in a classroom experiencing it for yourself. School may teach you basic skills and situations that you may encounter, but it is not real until you actually experience a crisis for yourself. Some other myths in the book are all teachers treat their students the same and all students will perform above average. Children come from all different backgrounds and start school in different places. There is no way that teachers can treat every single student the same and ensure that they will all be above average. Overall the book was full of myths that show what other people think of teachers.

In many cases the classroom reinforces gender stereotypes perpetuated by society. This can be found in the materials used for instruction,

A teacher is an important key element in the educational system as well as a role model. Some teachers hold traditional gender stereotypes about their students’ views of what is expected of them. Many children develop social

Teaching, according to the Teacher’s Training Agency, “…is a job for those who like and respect young people” (2005). Andrew clearly from his responses, suffered during his schooling, and perhaps felt disrespected as a result of being labelled. His position as an educator a number of years later, enable him to look quite critically upon his educators, almost, one could argue with an expert eye.

Media has grown to be accepted as a very important teaching tool and is even being used with that exact purpose, education. As Henry A. Giroux said about animated films, “I soon found that for my children, and I suspect for many others, these films possess at least as much cultural authority and legitimacy for teaching roles, values, and ideals as more traditional sites of learning…” But what we see now is this ‘teaching tool’ schooling the public about school itself.