ibarw: visibility of indoctrination

This isn’t so much an essay or a personal account, as it is a question and a challenge.

I watch TNT a lot in the mornings and afternoons (more so now that I’ve been out of work and have next to nothing better to do/watch) because I like the reruns of old school E.R. and Law and Order. They’ve been showing promos for The Ron Clark Story, a made-for-TV movie about a small town (white) teacher, Ron Clark, who moves to New York City and starts teaching at (AFAIR) a mostly all-black school. I saw it ages ago, when it first premiered, so I pretty much dismiss the commercials as background noise.

But since it is International Blog Against Racism Week () I realized something. I can, off the top of my head, think about about seven or eight movies (either dramas or comedies) in which a white teacher goes into an ethnically-dominated school and shapes up the classes/students that everyone else has just plain given up on or inspires their students to perform and succeed in ways they weren’t before:

1. The previously mentioned Ron Clark Story
2. Dangerous Minds
3. Music of the Heart
4. The Blackboard Jungle
5. High School High
6. (stretching the category a bit to include mentors) Finding Forrester
7. (private tutor) The King and I/Anna and the King
8. The Substitute (and possibly its sequels, of which I’ve seen neither)

Then I tried to think about it the other way around. What movies have I seen that shows a person of color/minority as an inspirational teacher/mentor either to other minority-dominated classes or to white students:

1. To Sir, With Love
2. Stand and Deliver.
3. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (I suppose you could also technically include the original Sister Act if you’re willing to stretch your idea of who students are)
4. Lean on Me

Now, I know there’s got to be more of these movies and presentations that I haven’t run into. Because I’m fairly uncomfortable with the idea that we still perpetuate the myth that the “savages” have to be “tamed” by the good, noble white person. I know intellectually that it exists but I never quite thought about the perpetuation shown quite so baldly. School is, after all, societal indoctrination and a primary source of socialization for most children. Even more, I can’t recall seeing this type of movie for any minority but African Americans and Latino/Hispanic Americans.

So, rec me! Tell me movies I’ve missed. I’ve got nothing but free time right now.