Printer-friendly versionJust when we thought that public opinion of teachers couldn’t get any worse, a new film, Bad Teacher by the writers of the television mockumentary, The Office, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky was released across the country. The film’s title leads you to believe there is only one villain, but the truth is every teacher in this film is bad. Obviously, it’s meant to be a funny summer film, but if you take a closer look at what this movie says about teachers, it’s distressing.
Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is definitely the worst of them all. She shows movies to her class for the first eight weeks and guzzles hard liquor from the bottom desk of her drawer while her students stare at the TV. When the seventh-graders sponsor a car wash, Halsey uses her sex appeal to bring in the cash. She throws racial slurs at her students (along with dodge balls) and only begins to teach when she realizes there is a cash bonus for the highest performance on the state test. She’s saving up for a boob job. It’s easy to call her a bad teacher.
But her colleagues aren’t much better. From the gym teacher (Jason Segel), whose great accomplishment is moving the championship banners from one side of the gym to another, to the old hippy teacher who pretends to sleep through staff meetings, John Adams Middle School (or JAMS as they refer to it) must be a rotten place to be a student. Even the teacher we are supposed to believe is good, because she cares about her students, decorates her classroom and takes her job seriously, goes off the deep end and loses everything she had going for her as she competes for the romantic attention of a colleague, played by Justin Timberlake. And we are led to believe that it isn’t the first time she’s had a nervous breakdown as her principal often refers to the “2008 incident.”
I can handle a few hyperbolized caricatures here and there. After all, this is a comedy. Unfortunately it’s not a smart comedy. A smart comedy would have done more than stoop to some of the same weary conventions we’ve already seen in teacher movies. For example, Halsey is only ever shown teaching one class period, even though we know she has four. The belief that teachers have three months off to lounge every summer is perpetuated with a classic chalkboard segue with the words “Three Months Later.” In the eyes of the public, there’s no such thing as time for professional development or time to close down and start up your classroom each year. A smart comedy would have come from a place of expertise and truly satirized the profession.
According to Bad Teacher, even so-called “good” teachers gather in the gym and smoke pot together when they should be chaperoning a school dance. Principals exist only in their luxuriously removed offices (the principal of JAMS, for example, is never seen outside of his office except for one unfortunate bathroom scene). And students sit in the same row day in and day out.
Perhaps the worst stereotype to be perpetuated by Bad Teacher is the notion that “those who can’t, teach.” It appears to be true in this suburban area of Illinois where white teachers are ignorant, obliviously racist and at ease with peppering their everyday speech with mock Spanish in a pathetic attempt to appear “worldly.” In short, Bad Teacher might make some people laugh but if it were a true reflection of what the country is thinking about teachers, it would only make us cry.
Thomas is an English teacher in California.
Comments
It is hard to look at though
It is hard to look at though I do believe there is a bit of truth to every joke. Perhaps the bit of truth here is not our teachers it is our outdated system?
If this does find a bit of success, meaning it makes money and people actually do watch it, then there is a piece of reality we must all take a hard look at. I am not sure what that reality would be off-hand though. Again, it probably is the system that makes "it funny" though I am saddened by it.
THANK YOU for writing
THANK YOU for writing this...I couldn't believe the premise of this film when I first started seeing the previews. I thought, are you kidding me?!? The timing couldn't be worse, but just the fact that this is billed as a comedy is completely insulting. It is so very unfunny.
I happened to see the
I happened to see the previews to this film a few weeks ago. Where to start. You've mentioned the specifics in the film from stereotypes to the tired, trite, humorless attempt to make a film that says anything new. But then that's the point. The decay in this culture is so extensive that most folks don't even know when they're being played. I wonder, too, about the actors. Certainly Diaz and Timberlake do have some semblance of a social conscience, don't they? I wish there were some way they could be approached and be given an opportunity to be accountable for participation in a project that does more for the forces of teacher bashing than entertainment.
There must be thousands of films that show teachers in a classroom. But they rarely plan or teach a lesson. They rarely depict (accurately) the many roles a teacher plays. I recall a piece of research that concluded the average teacher (whatever that is?) makes about 14 important decisions daily. Certainly some possibility in innovative film making there. My next decision is to not see this film, encourage others not to see it, and perhaps let the producers know that they have other options if they care about their craft. Sadly, we all know what they care about most.