American Teacher

This wonderful documentary has given me a new respect for those called to serve as teachers. An often under-appreciated class of professionals is brought into focus through touching interviews and research detailing stark realities. The film introduces us to some earnest teachers that attempt to rise above the financial truth and social stigma of their chosen profession.

We see a confluence of pressures that force many of the best and brightest into other professions. The film makes a convincing case that primary and secondary school teachers are an important cornerstone of American society, but are not afforded same the respect as other professionals. If you were ever inspired by a teacher, or had a teacher that had clearly burned out, see this movie... It's not as easy as it looks.

Excellent narration by Matt Damon. Engaging and inspiring teachers profiled. May change your opinion of those that choose to teach.

Ambitious in scope and sweet in nature, American Teacher ultimately fails to convince the viewer of the validity of its central argument. Funded by a non-profit called The Teacher Salary Project, the film attempts to argue that the root of America's education crisis lies in a workforce (3.2 million in 2010) who are undervalued and therefore driven away by the combination of a lack of financial support and a lack of respect for the teaching profession. American Teacher's solution? Fairly simply, pay them more.

Rhena Jasey, one of the five teachers documented, offers the most convincing case. A young Harvard graduate, she decided to take a job in teaching to the bemusement of her peers, all of whom had jobs in lined up in law, finance and medicine with starting salaries well in excess of her own $35,000. Smart, grounded and at ease in her classroom, 'Ms. Jasey" is the kind of teacher we'd all want for our children, and the inference is made that if public schools could offer more competitive salaries and promotion prospects, more of Jasey's ilk could be attracted to a career in the classroom.

Thankfully, more evidence is found to support the argument than merely Jasey's own testimony. Graphics (if you've ever seen Waiting for Superman, they are frustratingly similar) are rolled out to lament the United States' current education problems vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Finland is once again held up as the exemplar, a state in which teaching is the most sought-after profession and, coincidentally or not, a state where teaching salaries match up competitively with any other line of work. If the film has our attention at this point, it lets itself down through a combination of not answering the obvious question - where is this money to be found? - and allowing itself to be quagmired in the sob stories of the current class of underpaid teachers.

That is not to belittle their situations, but to question why three-quarters of the film was spent describing the anguish caused by the current system and only a quarter spent on the actual solution proffered, particularly when the former is known (if ignored) while the latter is supposedly novel. 'American Teacher' is well-intentioned, and its subjects are as selfless as they are important, but when addressing a matter of policy, you can't allow the details to be lost in the emotion.

This was a missed opportunity.

I was so excited to see this documentary but to my surprise, I was extremely disappointed with it. This documentary was primarily focused on the fact that teachers don't make a lot of money and I'm here to tell you, that is NOT the problem with education. Not even close. Education is completely micromanaged...teachers do not have the flexibility and control like they used in their classrooms. As much as everyone likes to deny it, we are FORCED to teach to the test...our jobs and ultimately, our lives, depend on it. It is absolutely true that we are not educating kids for the future anymore..but that is not our fault. We are forced to teach a certain way, as some textbooks are literally scripted and we have to read it and present it as we see it in the book, regardless of how much we know the kids are NOT getting it. When administrators come in our classrooms, they are not looking for how the kids are doing in their regular day to day work. We are judged based on the activities we do, regardless of how much the kids are learning from it. Middle school teachers can have up somewhere around 130 students and we have to document just about everything we say to any child in a disciplining tone otherwise our word means nothing. We have to deal with parents running the school and forcing exceptions to rules. We are not respected and our work goes unappreciated. Forget the money! If all of this stuff was better and we were trusted to do our jobs as we were educated to do, (some of us with up to $80,000 of student loans from getting various Masters Degrees in education) we wouldn't care about the money because as I said earlier, we knew how much the pay was when we became teachers. That wasn't a surprise. On the other hand, how much we're not trusted or respected was. It's awful that none of this came up in this "documentary." This video makes us look shallow and greedy. The man in this video lost his wife because he was working two jobs? Why couldn't his wife get a job so he didn't have to work two jobs? It's awful that he's blaming teaching on losing his marriage. This video does NOT show what teachers go through on a regular basis at all. This is an awful interpretation to the problems in education. Try going to middle schools and asking a variety of teachers, rather than just 3 or 4. This was so disappointing!

This documentary is a solid entry on its own merit; it gives us a very accurate picture of what exists in classrooms in America today. The only area that it is substandard in is WHY these classes and teachers are in the situations that they are in.

The US ranks in the 20s worldwide in Reading, Math and Science. We rank number one in guns and national defense spending. We tend to spend money excessively on the wrong things within our national budget. The priorities of politicians in the US are not the priorities of the American people. American families want to make money and provide the best educations for their children; our elected officials have a different agenda.

The US has a pathetic infrastructure when compared to developed infrastructure countries like Japan and China. This limits both economic and educational opportunities. In addition, American curricula is deficient in Asian Studies, International Studies, and International Economic Dynamics. Our teachers and professors are ill-prepared to teach these essential materials as well.

The object of our government, it would appear, is not to make economic progress, but to maintain the status quo or worse. Bickering is constant between the two parties, and little progress has been made over the last several decades, while the middle class has lost purchasing power during the same span of time. Unfortunately, it would take a film longer than Ben-Hur just to list the problems and solutions of this situation. Hopefully, things will improve in the future.