A Discourse on Extraordinary Educators
Michael Holzman
I. Introduction
Within the spectrum of films exists a niche category of feel-good stories illustrating the impressive feats real-life educators have on their students. The main characters of these films are extraordinary educational professionals called to improve their society through teaching youth. Two films within this category are Lean on Me and Freedom Writers. The educators within these two films work in urban, low socioeconomic school districts. School districts that fall into this category present unique challenges for educational professionals. It takes a resilient, enduring educator to be successful in this type of environment. Burn out is incredibly high. That said, Lean on Me tells the story of Joe Clark, a real principal who “cleaned up” Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ, during the 1980’s. In the film, Clark rules with an “iron-fist.” He works at any cost to protect and support his innocent students, as they attend school. Through his radical authoritarianism, Clark instills pride in the body of Eastside High, changing its course dramatically. Through different means, Erin Gruwell, represented in Freedom Writers, impressively educates her English classes as a rookie teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA, during the 1990’s. Having been inspired by her father’s work during the civil rights movement, Gruwell teaches so that she may serve marginalized populations in a way that helps them fight for their own freedom from oppression. She manages to amend her curriculum and behavior in a way that is conducive to helping her students succeed academically. Rather than judge their lacking knowledge of life circumstances unfamiliar to her own, she changes her perspective. Both Clark and Gruwell help their students succeed academically.
My research revolves around the question: How do films based on true stories of extraordinary public high school educators portray and discuss the relationships between teachers and administrators and their students? There is interdisciplinary literature which delves into important foundational knowledge necessary to analyze how and why these educational professionals may have been portrayed the ways they were in their respective films. Subjects necessary to research are challenges in urban, low socioeconomic schools, the psychology of youth, gender’s effect on students and faculty, and the portrayal of educators in film. The ways in which films depict educators and students affects how audiences perceive them. Though films based on true stories are not entirely true, without further research, such a label can make an audience feel as though it is.
The teaching methods, or pedagogies, used by Gruwell and Clark are drastically different. Though they are both represented as being effective in their roles, the time periods of their application must be considered. Within my research, I analyze the complex environments that they educate within, the pedagogies that they apply in their work, their impetuses for choosing to become educators, and the reception their students have of them. They each educate in their separate roles in ways that coincide with the recommended pedagogy of their time, though Clark’s seems radical in modernity. Both Clark and Gruwell feel that they lack meaning in the absence of their work. By the end of each film, both Clark and Gruwell are cherished by their students and more widely, audiences across the world.
II. Methodology
In studying the portrayal of extraordinary educators within Hollywood films based on true stories, I will employ a textual analysis of the following objects of study: Lean on Me (Avildsen) and Freedom Writers (LaGravenese). Both of these films highlight a different type of educator. Lean on Me, released in 1989, follows high school Principal Joe Clark; Freedom Writers, released in 2007, portrays high school English teacher Erin Gruwell.
The main characters of these films are depictions of real educational figures in America’s history. Joe Clark served as the principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ from 1982 to 1989. He was commended by former President Ronald Reagan for his work and efforts (Sandomir). Erin Gruwell taught English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California from 1994 to 1998. Her innovative teaching style, specifically amending her syllabus to fit her students needs brought attention to the effect she reportedly had on her students (PBS SoCal). Each of these true stories was altered in varying degrees by filmmakers for the purpose of entertainment and profit. In studying these films, there are several facets I anticipate being integral to my understanding of their importance. Firstly, I will take note of how the students' lives are affected by the work of their educators. In addition to this, the types of effects these educators have on overall school culture is something to investigate. These professionals have been deemed extraordinary by our society. I seek to understand the legitimacy of the pedagogies these educators apply.
III. Literature Review
Existing literature revealed four major components necessary to understand prior to analyzing my objects of study: Education Pedagogies in Urban Schools, Cultural Challenges in Urban Schools, Boys in Urban Schools, and Educators in Film.
A. Education Pedagogies in Urban Schools
Per capita, the most poverty in school systems exists in urban areas - more than suburban or rural environments (Urban Schools). The American Psychological Association cites a 2009 study, Risk Factors for Learning-Related Behavior Problems at 24 Months of Age: Population-Based Estimates, for identifying the fact that “children from low-SES [socioeconomic status] households and communities develop academic skills slower than children from higher SES groups” (Morgan et al, ctd. in the Education and Socioeconomic Status Factsheet). Hence, educators in urban, low-socioeconomic school systems must utilize creative pedagogies to offer equitable education to their students.
One intervention in the classroom which studies have shown to benefit students is an empathetic nature on the part of the teacher (Warren 395). The pragmatism of this notion is not clear, which may allude to the idea of teaching being an art (Warren 396). Studies cited by Warren found that the use of genuine empathy is particularly applicable in educating young men of color. Warren cites Mark Davis’ definition of empathy as, “‘the reactions of an observer to the experiences of a target,” giving “equal status to both cognition and emotion, process and outcome, disposition and situation” (Davis qtd. in Warren 397). Warren continues that empathy is compound; including empathic concern and perspective taking. Empathic concern being the emotional factor including, but not limited to, “feelings of sympathy, personal closeness, grief, and/or the emotional human connection of the observer to the target” (Warren 398). One teacher in Warren’s study makes sure her students know that her door is always open during her free period to talk about any matter as a means of offering caring attention to them, which in effect is empathic concern. Perspective taking is the intellectual imagining of another person’s situation and the conceptualization of the self being in their position (Warren 397). One example of active perspective being utilized by another of the teachers in Warren’s study is that she has students keep a journal, which she encourages them to give feedback to her through. She specifically notifies the students that she reads every word and line of their entries, responding to their notes, comments, and misc. entries weekly. Empathy is one recommended methodological facet of educating students facing challenges that are present in low socioeconomic, urban schools.
B. Cultural Challenges in Urban Schools
Urban schools breed cultural challenges which hinder the learning process. These challenges include Perceptions of Race and Class as Limiting Predictors of School Achievement; Perceptions of Different Learning Styles Versus Intellectual Deficiencies; Lack of Cultural Responsiveness in Current Policies and Practices; and Good Practices for Addressing Issues of Cultural Dissonance (Ahram et al). School faculty in low socioeconomic, urban schools commonly have the perception that their students are not able to handle the material taught to them (O’Connor et al, ctd. in Ahram et al). A common concept in these schools is “urban behavior,” which is used to reference this lack of readiness or maturity of the students to learn the material being taught. As a result, students aware of these conceptions regarding their abilities as students can make them feel vulnerable and threatened (Perry et al, ctd. in Ahram). In some situations, this results in the students failing early in school, confirming these beliefs (Ahram). Educators in these environments can turn these challenges into cultural dissonance (Ahram et al). Cultural dissonance can be defined as the result of first or second generation “immigrant youth confront[ing] with information and values at school that are not coherent with their beliefs or traditions at home” (Martinez-Taboada 8). School faculty need to be mindful of these challenges in order to help their students as much as possible.
Within urban schools, an increasingly prevalent phenomenon is the presence of gangs (Lenzi 386). According to the National Institute of Justice, researchers generally accept the requirements for something to be a “youth gang” as a “group [having] three or more members, generally aged 12-24. Members share an identity, typically linked to a name, and often other symbols. Members view themselves as a gang, and they are recognized by others as a gang. The group has some permanence and a degree of organization. The group is involved in an elevated level of criminal activity” (National Institute of Justice). The existence of youth gangs in schools is unconducive to a learning environment.
In the late 1950’s, anthropologist Oscar Lewis coined the term “culture of poverty” to describe the perpetuation of values and beliefs within generations of impoverished communities. His stance was that people in poverty told stories of helplessness, dependency, and powerlessness to their kin, which further solidified another generation of poverty. Teachers need to be educated on the effects “deindustrialization, decentralization, classism, racism, and disproportionate educational funding [have] upon their students’ educational outcomes” (Rogalsky 198). As society progresses, the need for pedagogical amendments in schools becomes clear.
C. Boys in Urban Schools
Minority male youth have long faced significant adversity in schooling (Grant 1). These boys, “especially African American boys— who have been classified as ‘at risk,’ ‘imperiled,’ ‘in trouble,’ and ‘bad,’ even described as an ‘endangered species’ in many contemporary writings” (Grant 1). It has been found that “African American and Latino boys living in urban settings are more likely to drop out of school, and are less likely to enroll in college in comparison to their female and White counterparts (Schott Foundation; US Department of Education, ctd. In Pérez-Gualdrón et al 3). Julia Grant argues that the practices in dealing with disruptive or troublesome young men in classrooms: “single-sex education, male teachers, ‘tough love,’ special classes, and a more ‘practical’ curriculum, building on pre-existing male peer groups— are rooted in a gendered past,” and may have done more harm to these students, rather than having helped them (13). Amongst young men of color in schools, there can be a negative connotation with academic achievement. Young men of color in schools experience tension between the need to feel respected by their peers and a desire to succeed academically (Gunn 63). The inner city schoolboy’s cultural dissonance hinders a healthy relationship between his school community and that outside of it.
D. Educators in Film
In her scholarly publication Reading Educational Philosophies in Freedom Writers, Jung-Ah Choi commends the pedagogically accurate portrayal of effective urban educator Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers. Gruwell successfully rewrote curriculum, treated students as creators of knowledge, created community within her classroom, and found teaching to be self-realizing (Choi 245).
Penny Smith of the College of Education and Allied Professions at Western Carolina University explores the portrayal of education leaders through popular Hollywood films. Smith discovers common character types of school administrators in films: the savior; the supportive father; the dupe; the clueless; the opportunist; and the pimp (Smith 51). The few women in educational leadership roles sexistly fell into different categories: politically motivated shrews, benign mothers, or helpmates (Smith 51). One such character Smith discusses as an archetypal hero in education is Principal Joe Clark in Lean on Me. Like other saviors in films, Clark is an educational Rambo (Smith 51). Films such as Lean on Me tell audiences that there is not a problem with school systems, they are simply lacking able administrators. Films depicting mythically heroic educational leaders satisfy audiences' desire to see simple, quick, solutions to complex societal problems.
IV. Analysis
A. Problematic Environments Unconducive to Learning
It is near the beginning of Lean on Me that a meeting regarding the dismal status of Eastside High is discussed between town Mayor Bottman, the school board Attorney Mr. Rosenberg and the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Napier (Avildsen 10:51). The Mayor is notified of a recent state ordinance requiring 75% of students at Eastside High to pass a minimum basic skills test, or else the state will take control of the school. Only 38% of the students passed the minimum basic skills test the previous year. This conversation illuminates an urgent need for change within the school in order for Paterson, New Jersey to keep control of it. Napier admits it would take “someone with nothing to lose” to take on this role (Avildsen 11:20). The only conceived person is a former teacher of Eastside High School Joe Clark who was punitively moved to an administrative position at a local elementary school after having numerous conflicts with his coworkers. Later in the movie, it is made known that Clark is divorced and cares more for his work than himself. The school environment is introduced in the beginning of the film, as the song Welcome to the Jungle by the band Guns and Roses plays. This song choice correlates Eastside High to a jungle. Interpreting the song choice quite literally, a jungle is a very dangerous place for people to survive, let alone thrive. The building which Clark walks into is a wasteland.
Professor Erin Gruwell enters Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California after a recent integration program has taken place bringing more students of low socioeconomic statuses into the school. This has indirectly brought school ratings and performance down significantly. Other faculty including English Department-Head Margaret Campbell responds with jaded cynicism to Gruwell’s bubbly personality and optimistic attitude. Prior to Gruwell starting her first day at Woodrow Wilson High she meets with Campbell over coffee. Many of Gruwell’s niceties are dismissed by Campbell. Campbell briefs Gruwell on her duties as if she is on a paramilitary mission: “[T]hese are the classes you'll start with: Freshman English, four classes, about 150 students in all. Some of them are just out of juvenile hall. One or two might be wearing ankle cuffs to monitor their whereabouts” (LaGravanese 4:21). Campbell bluntly states the fact that some of Gruwell's students are fresh out of juvenile hall. To her, it is commonplace. In response to Gruwell asking Campbell to review her lesson plans, Campbell says “we'll have to revise your lesson plans. And if you look at their scores, these vocabulary lists and some of these, the books, Homer's The Odyssey, they're gonna be too difficult for them... [a]lso for most of them to get here it takes three buses, almost 90 minutes each way... So, I wouldn't give them too much of a homework load. You'll just be wasting a lot of time following up on overdue work” (LaGravenese 4:49).
B. Pedagogical Response to Students’ Challenges
As previously discussed, introducing empathy in urban classrooms is a recommended teacher intervention. Gruwell practices this with her students upon realizing the magnitude of the challenges they face with regards to race wars and lack of necessary knowledge to be contributing members of society. Empathy is considered to be twofold by Warren, in that it includes empathic concern and perspective taking. Gruwell shows empathic concern throughout the film. One example of this is her willingness to stay after and even drive her student Eva Benitez home after Benitez notifies Gruwell of many emerging difficulties she is facing in her personal life. With regards to perspective taking, Gruwell gives all of her students journals and tells them:
[I]t's important for you to tell your own story, even to yourself. So... we're gonna write every day in these journals. You can write about whatever you want, the past, the present, the future. You can write it like a diary, or you can write songs, poems, any good thing, bad thing, anything. But you have to write every day... they won't be graded... I will not read them unless you give me permission. I will need to see that you've made an entry, but I'll just... skim to see that you wrote that day. Now, if you want me to read it... I will keep it [a cabinet] open during class, and you can leave your diary there if you want me to read it (LaGravenese 46:19).
Conversely, though Principal Clark selectively shows empathy to a few of his students’ challenges, he coldly dismisses most of their disadvantages. During his first school day, in a meeting with nearly all his faculty and staff Clark has them give him a list of every “hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant” in the school (Avildsen 15:12). He then assembles the school in the auditorium, with these less than desirable students on the chorus risers behind him on the stage. He expels these students and then turns to the audience to begin a short speech. In it, he passionately declares “If you do not succeed in life, I don't want you to blame your parents. I don't want you to blame the white man. I want you to blame yourselves. The responsibility is yours!” (Avildsen 24:00) These words perpetuate middle class, suburban ideals onto urban students of low socioeconomic statuses that the missing link for them to achieve success is hard work. By saying this, Clark carries on the notion of a culture of poverty. The culture of poverty is a theory which says that people experiencing poverty are only negatively affected by damaging, generational hopelessness, disregarding sociopolitical factors. The culture of poverty is integral to this film and problematically portrays this damaging stereotype to its audiences.
C. A Calling to Educate
One distinct commonality between Clark and Gruwell is how they identify the relationship they have with their work; they are called to it. Unlike a job, or even a career, a calling is work that allows a person to find life-defining meaning through it. Clark speaks at one parent event about being called by God to lead Eastside High School. Gruwell tells her husband and father that she feels meaningful when she is helping her students. One who feels called to their work is likely to go beyond his or her call of duty, spending extra time, effort, and resources to achieve their goals. Through their incredible, superteacher-like efforts, Clark and Gruwell are able to incredibly better the lives of their students; however, their own personal lives are abandoned in this endeavor.
After his first day on the job, Clark shares with the parents his reason for taking the job: “When Dr. Napier came to me offering this job, I saw the lightning flash. I heard the thunder roll! I felt breakers crashing, swamping my soul. I fell down on my knees... and I cried, ‘my god... why hast thou forsaken me?’ And the lord said, ‘Joe, you're no damn good.’ No, no. I mean this... more than you realize. ‘You're no earthly good at all unless you take this opportunity and do whatever you have to.’ And he didn't say, ‘Joe, be polite.’ ‘Do whatever you have to to transform and transmogrify this school into a special place, where the hearts and souls and minds of the young can rise, where they can grow tall and blossom out from under the shadows of the past, where the minds of the young are set free.’ And I gave my word to god. And that's why I threw those bastards out. And that's all I'm going to say.”
Erin Gruwell spends many extra hours in and out of the classroom for her students' educational success and must defend this behavior to her father and husband separately. She even takes on multiple part time jobs as a concierge and lingerie retail worker so that she may buy extra supplies for her students. After coming home late one night, Gruwell finds her husband has packed his bags and moved his furniture out of the house. He is sitting at the table drinking wine. He tells her that he feels he did not sign up for the relationship their marriage turned into and it is inferred he wants a divorce. He tells her he doesn’t understand the relationship she has with her work. In tears, Gruwell defensively tells her husband, “I finally realized what I'm supposed to be doing and I love it. When I'm helping these kids make sense of their lives, everything about my life makes sense to me. How often does a person get that? (LaGravenese 1:40:29). Gruwell finds great meaning from the work she does for her students. Unfortunately, for her romantic status, she prioritizes her work over her husband. Gruwell works for a cause bigger than her own.
D. Radically Positive Support from Students
Though students may adore teachers for reasons such as they are easy or always fun, both Clark and Gruwell receive radically positive support from their students that is indicative of genuine appreciation for their prodigious aid.
By instilling fear of the law, Clark was able to simultaneously help his students and earn their respect. His voluntary role, which mimics that of a father to students who do not have one, shows he offered a crucial component to the upbringing of his students beyond their academic success. Clark was devoted to rearing well-rounded citizens.
Gruwell was able to foster an environment of comfort and family for her students. In the final scene of the movie, after a long fought battle Gruwell had with the school district to teach her students as Junior and Seniors, she notifies them that she has been granted permission to do so. They cheer and hug her while the credits begin to roll. Gruwell’s willingness to fight for the ability to stay with her students shows radical compassion; their response to her efforts shows their immense appreciation.
V. Conclusion
Urban schools present unique problems that Clark and Gruwell learn to face in their own ways. Their races, genders, educator roles, and time period of working affect how they approach educating their troubled students. Within urban, low socioeconomic school districts, behaviors and cultures unconducive to learning are hyper-prevalent. These may include: racism, classism, violence, vandalism, gang affiliations, hyper-masculinity, general criminal activity, notions of urban behavior, and notions of the culture of poverty. Most of these detrimental activities and behaviors are shown in both Freedom Writers and Lean on Me. Gruwell and Clark give unprecedented amounts of energy and attention to the students they work for. Both educators are portrayed as selfless workaholics. They neglect the idea of urban behavior, that their students are inept. Rather, if anything is inept in their films, they would say it is the school, not the children. Were Gruwell and Clark to have theoretically met, they would have disagreed largely on pedagogy.
Gruwell’s approaches coincide with more modern pedagogy than Clarks. Granted, they were educated a decade apart from one another. Clark worked during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, who was famous for supporting tough, strict law enforcement. It is not unreasonable to imagine where Clark was coming from, when he took a similar approach in enforcing rules and regulations in his environment. However, his techniques would not be tolerated today, let alone commended by the president of the United States of America. Gruwell’s more empathetic approach is more on par with modern pedagogy. In teaching her students about the structure of oppression, her work coincides with critical pedagogy, which is based on Paulo Freire’s work. She was educating her students to be skilled readers and writers, accommodated with the knowledge and tools to fight oppression. Though Clark was also working to better the odds of success for his students, rarely in Lean on Me does he outwardly discuss forces working against them. He shields them from some of it by chaining the doors to keep criminals out of Eastside High, having the school cleaned and painted, and instilling strict, no-tolerance policies for criminal activity and laziness. Each educator is able to make incredible changes to their students' opportunities through their own approaches, each of which were commendable in the time periods they were applied.
Pedagogy aside, two of the noblest things each teacher does in their respective films are to have positive intentions and give attention to their students. In each film, what the students appear to be lacking are role model adults who show up for them. There is a mistrust of each educator from the students in the beginning of each film. Through consistent predictability, honesty, reliability, loyalty, and genuine intentionality, their students grow to trust these educators. Though Clark and Gruwell have each become known nationally for their work in real life, their portrayal in Lean on Me and Freedom Writers is undoubtedly glamorized and oversimplified. Each film does its best to give these real-life educators amazing stories justice in under two hours. One implication of these stories is the portrayal of an unrealistic superteacher, that gives the audience ideas of how educators can, should, and/or do act. Avildsen, LaGravanese, and their respective casts and crews should, however, be commended for their ability to inspire young people to enter the field of education, so that they may aid generations in becoming learned, well-rounded citizens by modern pedagogically accurate means. The implications of one person being inspired by Freedom Writers and/or Lean on Me is unquantifiably positive.