Top 12 Must See Teacher Movies, Part 2

And the list continues:

Remember the Titans (2000)
As two single-race Virginia high schools are forced to integrate in 1971, football coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) must transform his divided black and white players into a united team. Boone’s team faces prejudice and resistance at every turn, but they manage to find a common ground while tearing up the turf. Just as teachers shape students beyond the classroom, coaches shape who players become on and off the field.

Lean on Me (1989)
Morgan Freeman has played a limo driver, a U.S. president, a prison inmate and even God, but he takes on his most challenging role in Lean on Me. Freeman’s radical principal wanders the halls with a baseball bat, locks troublemakers out of school and refuses to accept any excuses. His extreme approach shocks teachers, students and the school board, but ultimately changes the lives and learning of his students.
(Trivia: Freeman also had a small role in 1984’s Teachers)

School of Rock (2003)
After getting kicked out of his band and threatened with eviction, wannabe rockstar Dewey Finn (Jack Black) fakes his way into a sub job at a private school. Dewey taps into his fifth-graders’ talents for his rock n’ roll comeback. In a surprisingly heartwarming, screwball comedy, School of Rock also manages to slip a lesson on the value of art education under the radar.

October Sky (1999)
When everyone else in a kid’s life is pointing them in one direction, a teacher may be the only one who helps them blaze their own path. That’s the case in October Sky. A young Jake Gyllenhaal stars as an outcast teen with a passion for rocket launching in a 1950’s close-minded, coal-mining town. With the support of his teacher, he follows his passion to the state science fair, to college and eventually to NASA.

Chalk (2006)
In the style of Christopher Guest, this mockumentary provides a dry, yet poignant portrait of teaching. The film follows a handful of teachers at fictional Harrison High, comically showing the struggles they face without making teachers the butt of the joke. You’re sure to recognize some painfully familiar classroom encounters.

Dangerous Minds (1995)
Despite the Coolio connection (or maybe because of it), Dangerous Minds has become an iconic movie for the fish-out-of-water teacher. Ex-marine Louanne Johnson wins over her rebellious students with candy bars, karate and Bob Dylan. It may be trite, Hollywood and a cliché of “the great white hope,” but it is also shows compelling connections between a teacher and her students. Either way, no list of teacher movies would be complete without it.

They say I gotta learn, But nobody's here to teach me.

If they can't understand it, how can they reach me?

~ Gangster's Paradise

Honorable mentions: Schooled, The Karate Kid, Freedom Writers, Children of a Lesser God, Hoosiers, Sister Act II, To Sir With Love, Pay It Forward, Finding Forrester, The Emperor’s Club, Akeelah and the Bee

What am I missing? Post your favorite teacher movie in the comments section, or see the rest of the list at the Countdown to Teachhub homepage!