'Teach: Tony Danza' Captures Classroom Reality

In my household, where my husband and I are both high school English teachers, we generally do not watch movies or TV shows about our profession during the school year. In nearly every teacher movie I can think of, there’s a clear message: If teachers just worked harder, students would succeed. I should be like Erin Gruwell of Freedom Writers [2], who sacrifices her marriage for her students, who works two jobs to buy new books for her class and who, ultimately, leaves teaching after just a few years. Depictions like these perpetuate the myth that all it takes are a few good martyrs. When they burn out, just hire some more.

But I grew up in the 1980s and watched just about every episode of Who’s the Boss? [3] So I caved when I heard about Teach: Tony Danza [4]. It’s a reality show on A&E in which Tony Danza pursues a lifetime dream of teaching high school.

Instead of hating it, as expected, I was pleasantly surprised by Teach because it doesn’t preach the usual message. In Teach, Danza’s potential for burnout is evident. He is only teaching one class. But the stress of the job shows on his face and in his voice during his early morning web diaries and his afternoon debriefs with an instructional coach. Critics [5] have tried to explain away Danza’s stress as a sign of incompetence, but I see it as a reality of the profession.

The expectations of teachers are completely absurd. Every good teacher knows that there is an infinite amount of work that could be done. There is always more feedback to give to a student, another parent to call, a more creative lesson plan to invent or another meeting to attend. Working closely with young people in a profession that requires adept multi-tasking and interpersonal skills is no easy feat.

What we see most often in Teach is not what academic instruction looks like, but rather an accurate depiction of everything a teacher has to do outside of instructional minutes. Some [6] have argued this as a weakness of the show, but we’ve all attended school and know what both good and bad instruction looks like. Teach reveals to non-educators what happens after the bell rings. This is a truth that the general public needs to know. It is a vital insight for anyone discussing  school reform.

There’s no heavy-handed message to this reality TV show, and that’s what I like about it. Documenting one particular school, during one particular year, with a particular celebrity teacher is the aim. But observant viewers will certainly learn about the hardworking people who interact with young people every day. They will learn that teenagers are loveable and often misunderstood. Most of all, I hope they will see that not only are teachers raising beautifully complex humans who are not a problem to be fixed, but that teachers themselves are not a problem to be fixed.

Thomas is an English teacher at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in Oakland, Calif.