Angry at the status quo and tired of being powerless, the residents of a low-income community band together to seize control of an oppressive local institution. What sounds like a rehash of last year’s “occupy” movement is in fact the plot of a new feature film: Won’t Back Down. The twist? The protesters are parents, and they occupy their failing public school.
While film critics are mostly apoplectic — only a third give it a thumbs-up on RottenTomatoes.com— viewers differ, and are nearly twice as likely to have enjoyed it. Here’s what audiences get that many critics miss: attacking the system is not the same as attacking teachers.
The movie itself makes this obvious. Half of the failing school’s teachers join with parents in the attempt to take it over and turn it around. The state teachers’ union is the villain, with work rules stifling educators’ freedom and a leader who will do anything to stop the reformers because the transformed school would not be unionized.
Film critics had great difficulty grasping this distinction. At least one claimed that the film “demonizes” teachers, despite correctly identifying the union as the bad guy. But the movie depicts only a single teacher as cruelly indifferent to her students. The rest are either heroic figures, like the one played by co-star Viola Davis, or simply human beings, concerned about their livelihoods but also desperate to do right by the kids.
There was a time when the public saw little distinction between teachers as individuals and the public school employee unions; or between the ideals of public education and the institution of public schooling. As the more favorable audience reaction to Won’t Back Down reveals, that time is passing.
Americans have begun to realize that the structure of our education system often prevents teachers from fulfilling their potential. In other fields, hard work and excellence are recognized and rewarded. Brew a better cup of coffee, build a better cell phone, and the world beats a path to your door. But do a brilliant job teaching kids to read at your local public school and … the system treats you pretty much the same way as it does your least motivated, least effective colleague. Consequently, many of our brightest educational stars burn out and others leave the profession. Some are even pushed out.
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