Teacher Sacked for Screening Elizabeth

The Guardian ^ | November 17, 2005 | Staff and agencies

[HostileTerritory]

The students seem unhappy.

[Sonny M]

The guy lacks some serious common sense.

[sandbar]

I think it is stupid for anyone to raise an issue about this. I understand 'procedure', but to force someone to resign? Come 'on! These students are 17 and 18 year old HONORS students. It's not like he showed Fast Times at Ridgemont High or anything. Talk about over reacting.

[Ragnorak]

smattering of violet and sexual scenes

If only they had used purple scenes instead...

[elc]

It was a great movie. Cate Blanchett was robbed of the Oscar. Instead it went to that "gawky bird" Paltrow.

[usafsk]

How about this issue: why are students in an honors British Lit class watching a movie to begin with, much less a highly fictionalized account of Elizabeth. Maybe a film of Shakespeare, but why are movies being shown so often now. I have a nephew who claims that his History class watches at least 1 film per week over 2 days. This is absurd. Teachers showing movies are just too lazy to teach and producing dopes.

[rightinthemiddle]

Those in charge of the credits have also been sacked.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I bet every single one of those kids has seen "Sex in the City" and "Will and Grace."

PC kills.

[huck von finn]

I agree. And that film is magnificent.

[marsh_of_mists]

Why does the Guardian newspaper care about what happens to a schoolteacher in Atlanta, Georgia? Because it involves a British literature class and Elizabeth I?

[ArrogantBustard]

[Sans-Culotte]

It's a pretty good film, but belongs in a history class rather than a literature class. He should have shown Shakespeare in Love if he wanted something from the period that had a literary angle.
In any case, I guess he should have sent home some sort of permission slip, though it is hardly any worse than anything teens watch on the WB.

[huck von finn]

I agree that kids watch too many movies in high school, but I'm willing to make an exception for this one. It's excellent--fiction, yes, but if these are honors students, they know that already. They can and should enjoy it for whatever it renders.

[HostileTerritory]

I'm sure they love stories that enable them to look down their noses at us and laugh. This is exactly the type of story that Europeans (and Brits) love because they have different standards about what teenagers can watch.

[dfwgator]

He should have shown Shakespeare in Love

What, and bore them to death?

[stripes1776]

How about this issue: why are students in an honors British Lit class watching a movie to begin with, much less a highly fictionalized account of Elizabeth. Maybe a film of Shakespeare, but why are movies being shown so often now. I have a nephew who claims that his History class watches at least 1 film per week over 2 days. This is absurd. Teachers showing movies are just too lazy to teach and producing dopes.

I was going to post with the same observation. You have nailed the problem.

[huck von finn]

It's a pretty good film, but belongs in a history class rather than a literature class. He should have shown Shakespeare in Love if he wanted something from the period that had a literary angle.

To be fair, we don't know what literature he had recently assigned or what the kids were reading at the time.

[pogo101]

The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked. The credits have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.

[mtbopfuyn]

They showed "Schindler's List" last year here to 8th graders. There wasn't a fuss about that movie.

[WomanBiologist]

i know when i was in HS - we used to watch the accompanying movie to the novel in my AP classes. Our assignment afterwards was to critique the movie for how closely it followed the novel, as well as how it handled the symbolism, etc... It was good - it demonstrated how well we understood the novel and how closely we could pay attention... if handled correctly - this can be a benefit.