How the Media Portray Schools

Boy, some of these are really going to date me!

FILMS

Urban: TO SIR WITH LOVE
There was nothing better than this movie. It was very big when I was growing up. Sidney Poitier played the reluctant teacher in an inner city school in London (1967). There were so many deep themes in this movie – racial conflict, socioeconomic issues, peer relations, coming of age struggles, sexual issues, to name a few. Also, the whole swinging England, mod, Beatles, Twiggy thing was huge, and the styles/fashions were fun to look at. The best part was Lulu’s song, “To Sir With Love,” which became a top pop tune in the U.S.

Suburban: FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
A little later in my moving viewing career, this film (1982) was THE burn-out suburban teen movie. It was basically the lives of a group of suburban high school students and their forays into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Sean Penn was hysterical as a druggy surfer. There were some very “deep” themes under the silliness – teen drug use, teen pregnancy, teen angst, and every coming of age issue you can imagine. It really portrayed the generation gap well.

Rural: BYE BYE BIRDIE
Ann-Margret singing and dancing her way through this kooky movie (1963) – she just ate up the screen. Conrad Birdie was an Elvis-type who got drafted into the army. His promoters created a contest in which the winning small town teenage girl would get to plant a big kiss on Conrad on national TV before he left for the service. Naturally Ann-Margret was chosen. I’d say this movie was kind of a cultural icon of small town high school culture as viewed through the eyes of movie producers of the times. The plot was simple and dopey, and was strictly a vehicle for the music and dancing. But it was the best. I loved it.

MUSIC

Urban: THE NEW GIRL IN TOWN (from the musical “Hairspray”)
This musical (2007) is set in gritty urban Baltimore in the early 1960’s. The plot centers around a young girl’s efforts to integrate a popular local television dance show. This song is about some girls who are nervous about keeping their boyfriends away from the hot new girl in school. The girls warn others about this girl, and threaten to run her over with a moving van and punch her lights out after school. It sends the message: Welcome to my school, hands off my man, and this is how we deal with your type in the big city. I guess she’s not in the suburbs anymore.


Suburban: SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER
This is a real oldie (1959). It was the classic end-of-school song. A boy and girl were saying goodbye at the train station because school was out and they were going off on vacations with their families for the summer. What a tragedy! Would a summer love break them apart, or would they reunite back at school in September?
What an innocent time, when these were your biggest problems.

Rural: BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL
This Beach Boys song (1963) was written as an idyllic tune about a jock who’s trying to tell kids not to put down their school. It’s all about the small town school happenings – the pep rallies, the football games, cruising, and other rah-rah-rah stuff. For the times in which it was written, it was very cute, catchy and to the point. A teenager’s whole life was supposed to revolve around his school. What he did in school (played football, dated the head cheerleader) gave him his status in that community. Cliché, yes. It’s an idealistic trip down memory lane.

TELEVISION

Urban: WELCOME BACK, KOTTER
This sitcom was the quintessential city school show (1975-1979). It basically centered around a group of tough underachievers called the Sweathogs lead by head hoodlum John Travolta. I guess nowadays this would have been the resource room. The teacher made good connections to the students, showing that educators can have a great impact upon students if they make the effort. Curriculum was secondary to the personal impact a good teacher could have on students. Aside from that, the show was all about the stereotypes: the tough, poor, bad students; the dumb, ineffective, uncaring principal; the idealistic teacher who wanted to give something back to his alma mater.

Suburban: MY SO-CALLED LIFE
This was a short-lived series (1994-1995) about a teenage girl’s personal journey, set mostly in the high school she attended. Claire Danes played the starring role. The show covered many important issues in a teen’s life – parent conflict, sibling conflict, dealing with a variety of friends and their issues, coming of age as a sexual being. It was well-cast, and characters were not flat stereotypes but very well-developed and believable. Perhaps because of this, it was critically acclaimed but not a winner in the ratings.

Rural: THE FACTS OF LIFE
This series had an incredibly long run (1979-1988). The story line centered around a group of young girls and their trials and tribulations at a boarding school out in the countryside. Within the group of seven girls, there was a spoiled rich brat, a tough hood from the city, an overweight girl, a cute and gossipy African American girl, among others. The point of this show was mostly to portray different girls with their own unique personalities and their struggles to fit in to a new school setting as well as live with each other in close quarters. I think the most difficult thing for the producers of this show was that the actresses were actually growing up and changing from young girls to young adults. This show dealt very lightly with some themes such as obesity, cultural differences, and socioeconomic differences. It seemed like it was more intended to entertain and charm the audience rather than delve into anything too deep.

NEWS

All my news stories related to schools seem to be disasters. They are the stories I can’t get out of my head. Sorry about the doom and gloom.

Urban: THE SETON HALL DORM FIRES
I just read a book about the three most seriously injured students in the Seton Hall fires (2000). It was a huge reminder that although this was nine years ago, these lives were lost or changed forever because of a stupid prank gone wrong. At the time the dorm fire happened, my own children were still in public school. But five years later as my daughter set off for college, I remember having a mild panic attack over the thought that I could not keep her safe. It took a tragedy like this to educate America about school fire safety codes.

Suburban: COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
The Columbine High School shootings (1999) stand out the most in my mind. It was the school shooting incident in my teaching career, and made me realize how dangerous being in a school facility can be. Being in a suburban school district, this was just not supposed to happen. Students and staff were supposed to be able to come to school and feel safe. This massacre brought to light the “goth” subculture, and the potentially dangerous outcast status many teens experience in school. Another notion that was toyed with by the media was the sheer size of the school. Were enormous regional high schools really a great idea, placing so many students in one building?

Rural: AMISH SCHOOLHOUSE SHOOTINGS
Another school shooting was at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish school in Pennsylvania (2006). I was always struck by the quiet and simple lives of the Amish. They don’t seem to want anything from the modern world, and simply ask to be allowed to live their lives as their beliefs dictate. It always seemed to me that they were a very protected society that was insulated from the evils of society. But when this incident occurred, it seemed all the more shocking that they were not protected at all, but were actually sitting targets, alone, out in the countryside. I thought the Amish people’s message of forgiveness was a beautiful response, but the tearing down of the schoolhouse said it all.