"School" and "Only a Teacher" - Reviews - Television Program Review

Radical Teacher, Winter, 2002 by Kate Rousmaniere

(2 made-for-TV movies)

During the first week of school this past fall, my local public television station broadcast three documentary specials about schools. The films ran literally back to back, and by the time I finished watching the first two (each about historical and contemporary issues in schools), I was too tired of the business to watch the third film (a documentary of the experiences of first year teachers in a city school system). I teach courses about the history and politics of schooling, so if it was hard for me to watch all those hours of documentaries about education, I wonder how much attention the films received from parents, students, or teachers during that busy first week of school. In the months since, there has been no re-broadcast of these documentaries, even though educational issues have been in the news constantly. In Ohio, where I live, the past eight months have seen the signing of one federal education bill in a local high school building, two state court decisions about a nine-year-old school funding c ase, and on-going debates about vouchers and charter schools in our major cities, not to mention continual public debates over proficiency testing, multicultural relations, teacher quality, and school safety. Yet none of these documentaries has appeared again to help Ohioans contextualize these major policy issues.

My reflections about T.V. programming leads me to wonder how educational politics might change if media coverage about schools went beyond back-to-school interest stories, sports, test results, and school violence. What would happen to citizens' understanding of their rights and responsibilities in educational policy making if they were more familiar with the complexity of issues raised in a policy like vouchers? How might a deeper understanding of the historical origins of the public school system help the public understand school finance issues? Could familiarity with the drama of educational battles of the past inspire new activism for school reform? What if the "History Channel" replaced some of its coverage of the Battle of the Bulge in 1945 with the battle over desegregation at Little Rock in 1957?

This is not to say that historical documentaries in and of themselves can enlighten us to the ultimate truth about American education. Indeed, one of the dangers of documentary films is that they can give the illusion of truth even as they shape history in particular ways by the inclusion and exclusion of stories, arguments, and perspectives. More dangerous than no history may be the presentation of one version of history as "the truth." In my mind, a good documentary, like a good written history, suggests that there are multiple versions of a historical story, and it encourages its audience to reflect, debate, and develop a more complex way of thinking about history. So, then, a good documentary about education would do more than present a simple chronological unfolding of events in a video format, and instead would link the past with the present, raise questions as much as answers, and inspire the viewer to turn off her television and go make history in contemporary schools.

Two of the films that were shown on my local station last Fall--"School" and "Only a Teacher"--present the full range of possibilities for documentary film about education. "School" presents historical narrative as a sequential series of unfolding events. "Only a Teacher" offers a more complicated, and interesting view of history that is intersected with contemporary lives and educational debates. "School" focuses on political themes in educational history, methodically tracking major events in the legal and institutional development of the country's public school system. "Only a Teacher" approaches education "from the bottom up," centering on historical and contemporary experiences of classroom teachers. "School" delivers a good survey of major figures and concepts in American educational history; "Only a Teacher" provides the gritty experiences of the unknown schoolteacher. If "School" provides us with important facts and figures, "Only a Teacher" provides us with quandaries to engage with, reflect upon, an d debate. If "School" tells us one version of what educational policy intended, "Only a Teacher" shows us how teachers have struggled to interpret and enact those policies.

Of the two films, "School" is most like a traditional textbook transferred to film. In four discrete one-hour segments, the series covers major historical and contemporary issues in American education, focusing (for good reason, I believe) on the twentieth century. Like most history textbooks, the series follows a standard chronological approach, which, although not particularly creative, is effective in introducing the broad sequence of events. Episode 1 (1770-1890) is a serious, scholarly study of the class and religious based education of early America, the nationalistic impetus of the early republic, and Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann's efforts to inspire a citizenry to support a public education system. Episode 2 (1900-1950) covers the Americanization of immigrants, new models of standardizing the curriculum and school management, the development of the IQ and other tests, vocational education and life adjustment education of the 1950s, and the effect of Sputnik in 1957. Episode 3 (1950-1980) focuses o n the issues of equality raised in the 1950s and 60s, centering on the major civil rights cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Chicano takeover of Crystal City, Texas schools in 1968, and gender inequities addressed by Title IX. To a lesser extent, the episode discusses the topics of bilingual education and the education of children with disabilities. Episode 4 (1980-2001) covers the recent issues of "free market reform"--the notion that adopting competitive delivery systems into the public school "monopoly" will force schools to improve. School choice, vouchers, charters, private for-profit school management corporations, and home schooling are covered in detail with commentary by major policy analysts and scholars who present what appears to be a balanced discussion of all the conflicting views.