Dead Poets Society, The Wave, The Class, Professor Holland, and The Chorus are the five favorite films of UNIR’s Education degree and master’s degree professors.
The challenge we threw down to teachers was direct: What films about education do you recommend? 68 teachers gave their opinions, and we recorded 180 votes for 10 films in our notebook. We also marked their reasons on the blackboard of this article.
In the end, readers will find the technical sheet of a “class list” that pays homage to the figure of the professor and the teacher and, of course, also to the films that recreate those who, with their teachings, can conceive critical minds.
From 1 to 10, according to the criteria of the professors of the International University of La Rioja, and with particular emphasis on the first 25, these are the films chosen:
01. Dead Poets Society
- Dead Poets Society. USA, 1989.
- Director: Peter Weir.
Cast: Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Josh Charles, and Gale Hansen, among others.
There is no doubt that this is a classic of pedagogy. It masterfully shows the figure of a teacher –Robin Williams—who is able to inspire his students through literature and the power he possesses beyond mere words. It is an emotional injection of motivation and inspiration for every educator (Juan Luis Fuentes).
Oh, Captain! My Captain! Our journey is over. The poem’s first verse that Walt Whitman dedicates to Lincoln has become a skillful and representative synecdoche of the film directed by Peter Weir, Dead Poets Society, in which carpe diem becomes a declaration of intentions with predictable and disastrous results. It is a beautiful work with an extraordinary script ( Jesus Fernando Perez Lorenzo).
An ode to the value of education and teachers (Diego Alonso Fernández).
It shows a way of seeing life: the search for dreams, the moment, the value… The teacher, in an unorthodox way, aims to form free, responsible human beings (Rosa de las Heras).
The lives of the students at a strict school are turned upside down when a literature teacher arrives, who opens up new expectations (Roxana Beatriz Martínez Nieto).
A different teacher in a classical world tries to make his students live in the moment and learn to think and live through poetry (Jordi Puig).
For his passion in defending the importance of human values in education. In an era where exact sciences and technology are taking over, humanistic values and knowledge must be vindicated, as is shown in this film (Julio Peiro).
I find it interesting because it affects the attitudinal and ethical aspects of the teaching-learning process (Raquel Gil Fernández).
The encounter between a shy student and an English literature teacher with original practices (Leila Lebtahi Kadi Hanifi).
It is a fascinating film to see the power of creativity and the breaking of conventions in education with all its possible consequences (Santiago López Navia).
Role of the Teacher as an innovative element in educational models (Ana Liliam Licona Vega).
It highlights the importance of family and values, as well as the motivating and creative role of the teacher (Betty Estévez).
Robin Williams plays a literature teacher who uses poetry to change the lives of his students, who are about to enter university (Susana Quirós).
A film showing an example of the creative method in the classroom (Hanane Benali Taouis) .
02. The Wave
- The Well. Germany. 2008
- Director: Dennis Gansel
Cast: Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Jennifer Ulrich, Max Riemelt, Christiane Paul and Elyas M’Barek, among others.
Based on Morton Rhue’s novel and a teacher’s experiment in California, it warns against the risk of manipulation in the educational field, especially with adolescents, and recognizes the human need for a feeling of belonging to a community (Juan Luis Fuentes).
A history teacher conducts a sociological experiment about autocracy with his students. Based on actual events (Juan Cano).
Freedom of thought, manipulation, and understanding the causes of fascism—the film allows us to see alternative teaching methods, the importance of teachers, and adolescents’ psychological processes (Pablo Fernández-Merino).
The film is based on the third-wave experiment (on authoritarian ideologies and dictators) carried out in the USA. The German film shows the experiment, which involves emulating an authoritarian regime in high school classes (Miryam Rodríguez).
The attraction of totalitarian regimes to a group of teenagers and how gregarious teenagers can be manipulated (Patricio Morodo).
Highly recommended and relevant for Secondary Education (Rosario Castro).
Topics: leadership, group identity, conflict management in a high school. Based on a true story (Ana María Fernández Ruiz) .
It deals broadly with the complex and controversial issues of ideologies and the classroom (Consuelo Pérez Colodrero).
03. The class
- Among the murs. France, 2008
- Director: Laurent Cantet
Cast: François Bégaudeau, Nassim Amrabt, Laura Baquela, Cherif Bounaïdja Rachedi, Juliette Demaille
This film clearly shows the reality of the classrooms in a French school where the students, teenagers, are conflictive. The teacher tries to transform the students into citizens through dialogue. The reality of tutoring with parents and living with other teachers who have entirely lost motivation is also clearly reflected (Nuria Camuñas).
It shows the conflictual reality of a school in Paris; it is exciting to analyze a type of teaching proposed to “marginal” groups and the teacher-student relationships within the school context (Pablo Fernandez-Merino).
Laurent Cantet’s great sensitivity appears in this title, which is somewhere between fiction and documentary. It is about the vicissitudes of a teacher in a school with working-class students (Javier Caravaca ).
French film and winner of the Cannes Film Festival. The film is based on the book written by the same teacher we see in the film, and it tells us about the daily lives of some teachers with excellent intentions who are overwhelmed by problems (Miryam Rodriguez).
The Class is a French film set in a marginal neighborhood. It features the interesting problems of a secondary education institute (Patricia Morodo).
A teacher’s attitude in a troubled school in Paris is to maintain the student’s interest in education (Pablo Villain).
The film is based on the autobiographical book Entre les Murs by the film’s protagonist, François Bégaudeau, a teacher at a troubled high school in Paris (Susana Quiros).
It is a film about secondary education in a troubled neighborhood (Judit Garcia Cuesta).
This is a film about the difficulties of a young French language teacher at a troubled high school in a marginal neighborhood. The teacher’s tremendous frankness surprises his students, but his strict sense of ethics is shaken when the young people reject his methods (Alicia Palacios).
04. Professor Holland
- Mr. Holland’s Opus. USA, 1995
- Director: Stephen Herek
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy, Jay Thomas, Alicia Witt, Jean Louisa Kelly, Terrence Howard and Balthazar Getty
A very human character who, therefore, achieves the success of his students (Jose Fernando Calderero).
It reflects the passage of the artistic life of a musician who initially turns to the teaching field to earn a living and how this last facet ends up being his true vocation. It is then that music, as the main spiritual form of the arts, transforms him. Fascinating reflections are presented on the meaning of the educational task and the relationships between teachers and students, friendship and family (Rosa de las Heras).
It deals with the subject of the teaching profession’s vocation. Mr. Holland had no vocation but became a great music teacher (Juan Cano).
A musician who, due to life circumstances, ends up being a teacher and discovers that his great musical composition at the end of his career is his students (Jordi Puig).
It is the story of how a good teacher is also made. A whole life was spent learning to love each student even while living his drama, more or less successfully, with a deaf son (Maite Mijancos).
The topic of motivation is fascinating (Raquel Gil Fernandez).
It’s a bit “hackneyed” (my students surely know it by heart). Still, it has a nice message about teaching, the personal dimension of the teacher, and, above all, the resources for training and musical emotion (Consuelo Perez Colodrero).
05. The choir boys
- The Choristers. France, 2004
- Director: Christophe Barratier
Cast: Gerard Jugnot, François Berleand, Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Jacques Perrin, Kad Merad, Marianne Basler, Maurice Chevit, Paul Charieras, Marie Bunel and Jean-Paul Bonnaire.
With all the necessary typology in the characters to carry out a renowned film, the work directed by Christophe Barratier, The Chorus, abounds in the everlasting and imperishable idea of the price of success, all under the auspices of a soundtrack that has made it a true icon of the 21st century ( Jesus Fernando Perez Lorenzo).
Education does not consist so much in teaching content as in raising students to the level of creativity and personal encounter, exciting them with the learning process as a channel for their personal development, and offering them the possibility of finding “meaning” (not just meaning”) in the content they must learn (Maria Angeles Almacellas).
Story of an exceptional music teacher (Leila Lebtahi Kadi Hanifi).
It is a film of incredible beauty and sweet intentions, which offers the viewer a lesson in human life: the value of charity and compassion in the face of the harsh discipline of the law (Maria del Carmen Diez Gonzalez).
Due to the role of the educator, the educational model, and the institutional ideology, many elements emerge for reflection (Maria Jose Garcia San Pedro).
It encourages the desire for improvement and conflict-free teamwork (Judith Garcia Cuesta).
06. Professor Lazhar
- Mr. Lazhar . Canada, 2011
- Director: Philippe Falardeau
Cast: Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Émilien Néron, Marie-Ève Beauregard, Vincent Millard, Seddik Benslimane, Louis-David Leblanc, Danielle Proulx, among others.
Secondary education is so standardized and planned, not only in Spain but also in other countries (such as Canada) that are supposedly so advanced from a pedagogical point of view, that it leaves little room for the personal treatment of students. An immigrant teacher dares to go “beyond” what is established by the educational norms of the center in his search to solve the educational and personal problems of his students (Daniel Rivadulla).
It delves into a delicate and complex issue, such as the death of a teacher and how to continue teaching; the substitute will debate between the taboo surrounding that fact or letting mourning and the expression of feelings allow the loss to heal (Garikoitz Gamarra).
It is a 2011 Canadian drama about an Algerian primary school teacher hired at a school in Montreal (Patricio Morodo).
Bachir Lazhar, 55, of Algerian origin, is hired as a substitute for an elementary school teacher who has died in tragic circumstances at a Montreal school. Professor Lazhar’s charisma and unique teaching style will be essential to helping him complete the course and change the lives of his young students (Nuria Villa).
07. Rebellion in the classrooms
- To Sir, with Love. United Kingdom, 1967
- Director: James Clavell
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Lulu, Christopher Chittell, Adrienne Posta, Gareth Robinson, Lynn Sue Moon, and Anthony Villaroel, among others.
The Spanish translation of James Clavell’s 1967 film To Sir, with Love may have played a significant role in the work’s success. Representing a historical moment, it questions the validity of traditional methods for finding solutions to endemic problems (Jesus Fernando Perez Lorenzo).
A film that shows that education, instruction, and training can make us better people and, in addition, offer us better life and professional possibilities in that search for happiness that, for example, the US Constitution enshrines as an inalienable right of all human beings (Aitor Bolanos).
Another classic that gave rise to a theme repeated in many films. It tells the story of a teacher trying to get a class in a school in a troubled neighborhood moving forward (Carmen Caro).
This is a highly recommended film for understanding the power of patience, authority, and the moral stature of the teacher when it comes to reorienting conflict in the classroom (Santiago Lopez Navia).
08. Today, it all starts
- Today. France, 1999
- Director : Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Philippe Torreton, Maria Pitarresi, Nadia Kaci, Didier Bezace, Veronique Ataly, Nathalie Bécue, Emmanuelle Bercot and Françoise Bette.
In this film, Bertrand Tavernier shows a harsh x-ray of early childhood education in contemporary societies, particularly in marginal places with economic problems. But he also teaches us that hope, sacrifice, and dedication are central values schools should try to transmit beyond frivolities such as competitiveness or personal vanity (Aitor Bolanos).
Tavernier offers this title to show us the value of the children’s teacher in a French region shaken by the industrial crisis (Javier Caravaca).
Teachers are dedicated and concerned people for families. Very sensitive (Patricia Morodo).
The film shows us that education goes beyond the classroom and the problems and virtues that this entails (Abraham Dominguez).
09. The little savage
- The little savage. France, 1970
- Director : François Truffaut
Cast: Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner, Jean Dasté, Paul Villé and Claude Miller
It conveys movingly the love and trust that is the basis of education. It allows us to reflect on the relationships between training and meaningful learning (Garikoitz Gamarra).
The script is inspired by an event from the 18th century when an 11-year-old boy (Victor) is found in a French forest where he grew up among animals without any contact with civilization. Doctor Jean Itard will try to educate and socialize him, something that causes an inevitable loss of the naivety that characterizes Victor (Martin Caeiro).
It is based on the true story of Doctor Itard (played by Truffaut himself) ‘s discovery in 1800 of a 12-year-old boy who, apparently, had lived in the forest since birth and could not speak.
What is education about man? This film demonstrates the old Kantian aphorism: “Only through education can man become man. Man is nothing more than what education makes of him” (Susana Quiros).
10. Being and having
- Being and having. France, 2002
- Director: Nicolas Philibert
- Documentary
It is a documentary about a very dedicated teacher (Leila Lebtahi Kadi Hanifi) who teaches a few students of different ages.
It is a beautiful documentary about a preschool and primary school teacher about to retire in a rural classroom. With him, we learn techniques and love and respect our students, value them, and push them to be better and evolve (Begona Camblor).
This film portrays the life of a small, unique classroom in a village. With a dozen students between the ages of 4 and 10 and under the tutelage of a single teacher of extraordinary dedication, it shows us a warm and serene look at primary education (Alicia Palacios).