Back to School at the Movies

The beginning of the school year brings lots of new things: school supplies, clothes, friends and teachers. Here is a list of movies that portray the creative and inspired teachers we all hoped for as students.

Freedom Writers - Based on the book "The Freedom Writers diary: how a teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them" by the Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell. A teacher inspires her students by assigning them to journal their daily lives.

Mr. Holland's Opus - A frustrated composer comes to realize that his real passion is teaching and that his legacy is not a truly memorable piece of music, but the generations of young people whose lives he affects.

Dead Poet's Society - Robin Williams portrays English professor John Keating, who, in an age of crew cuts, sport coats and cheerless conformity, inspires his students to live life to the fullest. The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm--changing their lives forever.

Good Will Hunting - A young working-class genius is hauled back from the brink of self-destruction by a gifted counselor.

Stand and Deliver - Story of Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at East Los Angeles' Garfield High School, who pushes and inspires 18 inner-city Hispanic students who were struggling with math to become math whizzes.

Music of the Heart - A single mother with little more than talent and the determination to make a difference teaches violin to students in a tough inner-city neighborhood.

The Emperor's Club - When a new student starts in Professor Hundert's class, little does the professor know that this student will change his life forever. They start out butting heads and end up forming a friendship that will shake the controlled world of the professor. The lessons learned will last a lifetime.

The Great Debaters - Melvin B. Tolson is a professor at Wiley College in Texas. Wiley is a small African-American college. In 1935, Tolson inspired students to form the school's first debate team. Tolson turns a group of underdog students into a historically elite debate team which goes on to challenge Harvard in the national championship. Inspired by a true story.