Chalk

I'm a big Christopher Guest fan and honestly went into this film expecting to be disappointed, but wound up being pleasantly surprised. Chalk was very entertaining, often hilarious, at times touching, and even managed to pull everything together to actually tell a story pretty well. The development of the Mr. Lowery character from start to finish was great. There were only a handful of actors in the film (the rest were real students, principals, teachers, etc.) and they were great. Troy Schremmer was excellent. Anyhow, I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys finding comedy in the ridiculousness of life or basically anyone who enjoys good mockumentaries. Or, people who are teachers or are related to teachers and know that world. Two thumbs up.

While this is, I think, an excellent film, the way the teachers are portrayed, and the culture within the school is hard to believe.

If this is accurate in terms of the skills the teachers have and the hostile culture within the administration, it is overwhelmingly disturbing. It makes me sad for our future.

Perhaps it is a tribute to how good a movie this is that is stirred up this strong of a response... nothing about it makes me excited or hopeful for the institution or the process. Many teachers I know do evoke these feelings in me, and I hope, in the classroom. So this creates a sort of cloud of conflicted emotions for me.

More than worth watching, just curious if anyone has the same sense.

I graduated college in 1994 with a bachelors degree in Government, but was unable to get into any post-graduate program that I applied for. So I have had a series of low-paying jobs that don't require more than a high school education. Ever since then, my mother has been asking me why don't I take a salaried position as a teacher like my brother. The trouble is that my brother hates teaching, and only took it up because he couldn't find anything else. And from all of my other friends who have become teachers (or who used to be teachers but burned out), I have heard that it is a high-stress job with very few rewards.

The movie "Chalk" is made by a group of teachers and does nothing to disabuse me of my beliefs about teaching as a profession. The teachers in the film are portrayed as a bunch of social misfits with serious relationship issues and middling intellects--in other words, not the sort of people who should be teaching kids. The one constant in their world is a lack of respect: not only from the students, but also from the parents and even each other.

Troy Schremmer is the emotional core of the film as Mr. Lowery, a first-year history teacher who used to work in high tech. He is shocked to learn that reading "Classroom Management for Dummies" is inadequate preparation for teaching, and is intimidated by his students (and sometimes even their parents). Janelle Schremmer plays Coach Webb, who whines about men assuming she's a lesbian because she's a PE coach who doesn't wear makeup and keeps her hair cut short. She develops a crush on Mr. Lowery during the course of the year. Screenwriter Chris Mass plays Mr. Stroope, who makes up for his lack of brains with his enthusiasm for teaching and massive ego. His goal is to become teacher of the year, not by hard work and discipline but by trash-talking the other teachers and treating his students as if they were his peers. And there is Shannon Harrigan as Mrs. Reddell, a former choir teacher promoted to Assistant Principal. She is harried by all the other teachers--once her peers--expecting her to side with them in their various squabbles with each other, and her new responsibilities are taking a toll on her marriage.

Many viewers have enthusiastically praised this film and compared it with the works of Christopher Guest--"This is Spinal Tap" in particular. The thing is, though, that Guest is a professional actor and director who had years to hone his craft before the cameras started rolling on "Spinal Tap". Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, and Harry Shearer also are show-biz professionals with established careers that predate "Spinal Tap". The director, writers and actors in "Chalk" are all actual teachers at the school where it was filmed. Many say this is an asset in that it gives the film an air of authenticity. I found it insufferable watching a bunch of people who can't act in a poorly shot film. And am I the only one who's sick of hand-held DV?

I did like the fact that the movie avoids all the usual Hollywood clichés found in the typical "inspirational" film about teaching. And there was one funny moment when Mrs. Redell sings "We can teach if we want to" to the tune of "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats.

But overall this is the work of amateurs. Appropriate perhaps to show to their families, students and co-workers, but not worthy of a paying audience. 5 out of 10.

Why do we assume that people can walk in off of the street and take charge of a group of young people? Part of the answer is a public perception that teaching is easy and doesn't require much special training; part of it may be that teachers spend years actually believing those things. The best learning environments in schools evolve to a meeting place for ideas and strategies to enhance interests in those ideas. If teachers lack ideas (concepts, facts, interpretations, etc.) and, additionally, a panoply of methods or strategies to encourage students and their various learning styles it should not come as a surprise that the Mr. Lowreys of the teaching profession as in deep water. Imagine yourself or your children in his classroom. Solutions: Begin with what you don't know and work hard to expand; visit other classroom and look for things that may work; and begin each new grading period with new ideas, filling in at the end with lessons that had worked well in the past. One can always tell if a teacher is stuck in the concrete of old lessons and ideas when an unannounced assembly or program breaks up the usual routine: "We can't do that; my third period students will be one day behind the other students." Did CHALK do a good job of communicating education's shortfalls? No. Why? Because there were too few students in the classes. Think in terms of more than thirty students to get an accurate picture, not twelve to fifteen. Yes. Why? Because the film captured the petty interruptions and bickering disagreements outside of the classroom that detract from the basic mission.

I saw this at the LA Film Festival, and it's a funny peek at the lives of teachers, from a point of view you don't often see.

According to the festival literature, it was written and directed by actual former teachers, so as you can imagine there is a lot of inside stuff that we may not have seen before, that is both sad and funny.

The plot, such as it is, follows four new teachers at a high school in Texas during their first year, and all the trials and tribulations they encounter. I didn't recognize any of the cast, I think the kids may have been real students, but that didn't matter to me. Like 'The Office', it shows the ineptitude and struggle to make sense of ridiculous things, like school policy, and people desperate to win 'teacher of the year'. It's funny and heartfelt, and reminded me of a Christopher Guest film in that it felt ad-libbed more than scripted.

I ended up feeling great affection for these people, and thought the film was very good.