Damrosch: Meetings of the Mind

David Damrosch, Meetings of the Mind. PUP.

Comic in tone and serious in intent, this book gives a vivid portrait of academic life in the nineties. With campus populations and critical perspectives changing rapidly, academic debate needs to look beyond the old ideal of common purposes and communal agreement. How can we learn from people we won't end up agreeing with?

This question is explored by four very different scholars, who meet and argue at a series of comparative literature conferences: David Damrosch, liberal humanist and organizer of the group; Vic Addams, an independent scholar of aesthetic leanings (and author of The Utility of Futility); Marsha Doddvic, a feminist film theorist; and the Israeli semiotician Dov Midrash. Throughout the 1990s, in four cities, they meet and debate the problems of disciplinary definition and survival, the relation of literary theory to society, the politics of cultural studies, and the virtues and vices of autobiographical criticism.

As their partly antagonistic, increasingly serious, surprisingly fond, and always funny relationship develops, Damrosch seeks common ground with his friends despite the fundamental differences among them. Can a self-parodying deconstructionist and a Proust aficionado appreciate and improve each other's work? Can a wealthy, windsurfing medievalist and a champion of Chicana lesbian memoir find friendship?
Hilarious exchanges and comic moments, as well as cameo appearances by well-known theorists, will entertain all literary-minded readers. Academic insiders will also be reminded of the foibles and quirks of their own disciplines and departments. At the same time, this exploration of the uses and abuses of literary and cultural criticism offers a running commentary on identity politics and poses serious questions about the state and future of the academy

The Oxford Murders

The Oxford Murders (film) - Wikipedia

The Oxford Murders is a 2008 thriller film adapted from an award-winning novel of the same name by the Argentine mathematician and writer Guillermo Martínez, directed by Álex de la Iglesia and starring Elijah Wood, John Hurt and Leonor Watling.

Cinebel:

Aan de befaamde universiteit van Oxford worden een student en een hoogleraar gedwongen

om samen te werken bij het oplossen van een reeks moorden. De moorden worden telkens gekenmerkt door wiskundige tekens die wel eens naar de dader zouden kunnen leiden.

The Oxford Murders

The Oxford Murders (film) - Wikipedia

The Oxford Murders is a 2008 thriller film adapted from an award-winning novel of the same name by the Argentine mathematician and writer Guillermo Martínez, directed by Álex de la Iglesia and starring Elijah Wood, John Hurt and Leonor Watling.

Cinebel:

Aan de befaamde universiteit van Oxford worden een student en een hoogleraar gedwongen

om samen te werken bij het oplossen van een reeks moorden. De moorden worden telkens gekenmerkt door wiskundige tekens die wel eens naar de dader zouden kunnen leiden.

Voskuil, Bij Nader Inzien

J.J. Voskuil, Bij Nader Inzien. Van Oorschot

De roman Bij nader inzien, voor het eerst verschenen in 1963, is de fascinerende beschrijving van een groep studenten Nederlands in Amsterdam tussen 1946 en 1953. Met een grote rijkdom aan onvergetelijke details weet J.J. Voskuil de typisch na-oorlogse atmosfeer van het studentenleven uit die tijd op te roepen. Vooral via de talloze op studentenkamers gevoerde discussies, waarin de literatuur een belangrijke rol speelt, raakt de lezer heel geleidelijk bekend met de persoonlijkheid en de opvattingen van elk van de personages: de studenten voelen verwantschap met het gedachtegoed dat het tijdschrift Forum in de jaren ’30 uitdroeg: het denken in ‘vriend en vijand’, de nadruk op intelligentie en de afkeer van wetenschap.

Maarten Koning, alter-ego van de schrijver, leert zichzelf bij stukjes en beetjes kennen, door te letten op hoe hij reageert op verschillende situaties, alleen, of met anderen. Een centrale vraag voor hem, en daarom ook in de roman, is die naar de betekenis van vriendschap. Maarten Koning moet uiteindelijk ervaren dat vriendschap bij nader inzien niets te betekenen heeft.

Course: Campus Novel

ENGL 491:20 “The Campus Novel”
English Department, St.FX University

This course will investigate selected campus novels from Britain, the United States, and Canada. Areas of focus include the novels’ textual strategies, their various affiliations with satire, comedy, tragedy, and popular forms (the detective plot, ‘chick lit’, for example), their hybridity, and their discursive potency with respect to constructions of power, class, gender, and race. The course will also consider ways in which the ‘campus novel’ or ‘academic novel’ has been conceptualized by scholars such as Elaine Showalter, Adam Begley, Ian Carter, and Janice Rossen, and how ‘the academy’ as a site of signification resonates more broadly with cultural discourses around social institutions and the production of knowledge.

May Sarton - Faithful are the Wounds

May Sarton, Faithful Are the Wounds.
Powell's Books -

Set in the academic world of Harvard and Cambridge, this novel dramatizes the plight of the embattled American liberal in the 1950s. Its central character is Edward Cavan, a brilliant English professor, who commits suicide. His death sets off a shock wave among Cavan's friends and changes things for some of them forever.
Synopsis:
Its central character is Edward Cavan, a brilliant English professor, who commits suicide. His death sets off a shock wave among Cavan's friends and changes things for some of them forever.

Howard Jacbobson, - Coming From Behind

Howard Jacbobson, Coming From Behind

In LRB

Howard Jacobson’s first novel, Coming from Behind, was published last year, and made one think that a new exponent of the comic academic narrative had arrived. Jacobson’s hero, Sefton Goldberg, Jewish and highly suspicious of his Gentile surroundings, is aggressive towards the literature he’s supposed to be teaching, to a degree that makes Leavis seem like a nice auntie. He’s also racked by consciousness of his own literary failure. To his misery, he finds himself stranded in Wrottesley Poly, where the enfeebled Liberal Studies department is threatened with a twinning with the local football club in order to revamp its decaying image. Goldberg sits in his office, envying the World Out There, which he imagines in the form of a mansion in Hampstead called Bradbury Lodge, where celebrated writers meet to have a good laugh at his expense. Meanwhile he puts down his own hopelessness as a littérateur to his incompetence in the matter of Nature. It seems to him that all Eng Lit is really about country walks, so ‘what the fuck did it have to do with Sefton Goldberg who was Jewish and who had therefore never taken a country walk in his life?’ Wrottesley Poly, however, is as much Tom Sharpe territory as a part of the Amis-Bradbury-Lodge world, and it is in the matter of comic plotting that Coming from Behind seemed to me to fail. Jacobson’s portrayal of Goldberg is flawless, but he seems to have little idea what to do with him, and the book tails off without any great comic debacle. One therefore turns to Jacobson’s second novel in the hope that he may have learnt something about construction.

THE IMAGE OF A TEACHERAS A ROMANTIC REBEL

ARISTIDES GAZETAS, THE IMAGE OF A TEACHERAS A ROMANTIC REBEL IN NARRATIVE FILM. PHD.

Six narrative films were selected for this study to investigate theimage of a teacher as a Romantic rebel. In each of these films, thecentral character is portrayed as a school teacher coming intoconflict with traditional educational pedagogies that involvestudent learning and discipline. Each film is reviewed andevaluated within the framework of the romantic-humanist theory ofeducation or the transformational orientation.

Images of Teachers

Crume, Mary Adams Tanzy, 'Images of Teachers in Novels and Films for the Adolescent, 1980-1987.' Ph.D.

Crume predicates her thesis on the idea that "literature and film serve
as vehicles for portraying and transmitting a culture, its values and attitudes."
She tests the commonly held notion that teachers are maligned in fiction and
popular arts, "depicted as fools, villains," and other unflattering stereotypes.
Dealing with American novels and films produced between 1980 and 1987 she
concludes that portrayals of teachers are diverse, although fiction writers tend
to treat teachers more sympathetically than film writers. She notes that both
mediums "presented a mixed view of American schools that minimized their
academic functions and highlighted their roles as social settings and battlegrounds."
Essentially Crume finds that teachers are not consistently impugned
in either medium, although filmmakers are less sympathetic to the profession
and the people in it than novelists.

Watson - DOING HOMEWORK

Watson, DOING HOMEWORK: NEGOTIATIONS OF THE DOMESTIC IN
TWENTIETH-CENTURY NOVELS OF TEACHING. PHD.

In this project, I analyze seven twentieth-century novels of teaching in order to
investigate how notions of “home” and “school” are constructed, connected, and
perpetuated in popular teaching narratives. Images of teachers in much of this century’s fiction often rest on views of the school as home that are derived from stereotypes of gender, race, and nationality—stereotypes that can be both inaccurate and repressive. For this reason, I examine these texts in light of how they negotiate school space with domestic space (“domestic” both as personal or familial, and as public or national). I contend that many of these narratives offer little more than simplistic, nostalgic views of what “home/school” space can be, and even fewer question the very equation of “school as home.” In those narratives that do probe the school/home connection, the teacherprotagonists often fail to emerge as the sentimental heroes that the teachers of the more conventional novels prove to be. Nevertheless, I argue that the most promising depictions of teachers and their work are those that acknowledge and engage the rich complexities of “home” and its (sometimes problematic) relation to the classroom, for the
very tensions and conflicts that problematize the school’s classification as a domestic “safe haven” are the very tools that can facilitate growth, learning, and self-discovery. The approach for my analysis draws from feminist and cultural studies, as well as educational history. The works I discuss include the following: The Blackboard Jungle; Good Morning, Miss Dove; To Sir, With Love; Spinster; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Up the Down Staircase; and Election.

Levi Weemoedt, - De ziekte van Lodestijn

Levi Weemoedt, De ziekte van Lodestijn

Voor het eerst compleet in één band: het meesterwerk van Lévi Weemoedt!Geplaagd door ruimtevrees en duizelingen wankelt de leraar Lodesteijn door het angstaanjagende heelal van zijn bestaan. De verhuizing van en krakkemikkig noodschooltje naar een modern en fonkelnieuw gebouw met zestienhonderd ramen brengt helaas geen verlichting...

Ellen de Jong.
Een interview met Lévi Weemoedt:

Het is in ons leven vreemd gesteld. Het is Lachen und Weinen, Weinen und Lachen', schrijft Weemoedt in een van zijn verhalen. Zeker in het onderwijs waar het zelfs meer huilen dan lachen was. Weemoedt gaf les maar stapte na dertien jaar op, niet zonder een mooi(afscheids) boek te hebben geschreven 'De ziekte van Lodesteijn' en 'De nadagen van Lodesteijn'.
Onderwijs en zwaarmoedigheid zijn de voornaamste bestanddelen van deze roman.
Hoofdpersoon is de 35-jarige leraar klassieke talen Lodesteijn. Hij staat tien jaar voor de klas en krijgt langzaam maar zeker het gevoel klinisch dood te zijn:
'Of hij zichzelf als leraar had overleefd en vanachter zijn eigen grafsteen toezag op wat hij voor de klas stond te gebaren.'
De staf van de christelijke scholengemeenschap meent dat 'leraren de redders waren van de mensheid en de pijlers onder de maatschappij.'
Lodesteijn heeft duidelijk een andere mening en die wordt hem niet in dank afgenomen.
Zijn collega's beschrijft hij als 'een grauw en neerdrukkend volkje waaraan uiterlijk noch innerlijk ook maar iets te bespeuren viel van het comfortabele salaris dat in de regel aan deze volvette muizen van geest wordt uitgekeerd.'
Toen ik Weemoedt belde om een afspraak voor een interview te maken zei hij: "Bel me één dag van tevoren nog even op, want ik kan wel dood zijn."
In levende lijve tegenover hem in zijn donkere studeerkamer in Assen vroeg ik hem: Wat heeft je in het onderwijs het meest gestoord?
"Ik stoorde me aan het type mens dat voor de klas stond. In mijn naïviteit geloofde ik dat er immer geïnspireerde en bevlogen mensen voor de klas zouden staan, welk vak ze ook gaven; dat verdienden die kinderen. Dat viel me reusachtig tegen. Ik had een afkeer van de docentenkamer.
De problemen zaten altijd bij de staf of bij de collega's. Daar lagen de belangrijkste wrijvingen. Merkwaardigerwijs niet bij de leerlingen. Ik ben het allemaal vergeten dus het zijn hoogst onbetrouwbare uitspraken. Maar ik vond het lesgeven wel gezellig. Dat is bijna een gemis.

Jonathan Coe - The Rotter's Club

Jonathan Coe, The Rotter's Club

Hans Bouman, 'Honderden wegen liggen open, en je kiest er maar één''. Volkskrant 10.1.2001

In al zijn boeken, zes tot nu toe, volgt Jonathan Coe de tijd op de voet. In The Rotters' Club belicht hij de jaren zeventig, voor zijn generatie in Engeland een periode van schaamteloze nostalgie. Het gaat in De Rotters Club (Meulenhoff; fl 49,90) ook over het verlies van onschuld, de opkomst van rechts in Engeland, en over Birmingham, Coe's geboorteplaats, die van schrijvende stadgenoten als J.R.R. Tolkien, David Lodge en Jim Crace niet de aandacht kreeg die zij verdient.

De opzet van het tweeluik, aldus Coe, is om de personages in 1979 achter te laten en de draad van hun leven twintig jaar later, in 1999, weer op te pakken. 'Ik wil het contrast laten zien tussen de bevlogenheid van een schooljongen en de omstandigheden waarin iemand van middelbare leeftijd is terechtgekomen. Dat is bijna per definitie niet wat je als scholier had verwacht.'

Coe heeft zich bij zijn opzet niet bewust laten inspireren door de 7 Up-documentairereeks van de BBC, waarbij mensen elke zeven jaar over hun leven worden ondervraagd. 'Maar ik ben wel altijd gefascineerd geweest door het idee om personages neer te zetten in verschillende perioden van hun leven en die beschrijvingen af te wisselen. Zo kun je laten zien hoe bruut de tijd mensen heeft veranderd. Terry, de filmcriticus in The House of Sleep (1997), spreekt daarover. Hij vertelt dat hij een film wil maken met maar één personage, die over een periode van 50 jaar wordt geschoten. 7 Up doet dat in feite ook.

'Beelden van iemand op latere leeftijd, gelegd naast die van jongere leeftijd, leveren bijna altijd een gevoel van desillusie op. Niet noodzakelijk omdat de levensloop van mensen teleurstellend is, maar omdat je als je jong bent nog denkt dat alles mogelijk is. Er liggen honderden wegen voor je open maar uiteindelijk kun je er maar één kiezen. Dat is hoe dan ook een teloorgang van potentieel.

'Het is een belangrijk thema in al mijn boeken: het idee dat de weg die je hebt gekozen niet de juiste is, omdat je nog 99 andere wegen had kunnen kiezen die misschien wel aantrekkelijker waren geweest. Door die gedachte word ik zelf ook achtervolgd. Stel dat ik net zo krachtig had vastgehouden aan mijn muzikale loopbaan als ik aan mijn literaire loopbaan heb gedaan. . .'


'Vorig jaar culmineerde dit in een serie op BBC2, genaamd I Love the Seventies. Elk programma duurde ongeveer twee uur en behandelde een jaar uit dat decennium. Het was volkomen nostalgisch en apolitiek.

'Hoewel ik allang vóór die televisieserie met The Rotters' Club was begonnen, mag ik het boek graag zien als een antwoord op die kritiekloze nostalgie. Leeftijdgenoten die terugverlangen naar de jaren zeventig, verlangen eigenlijk terug naar hun eigen adolescentie, die toevallig samenviel met dat tijdperk.

'Als je met mensen van andere generaties spreekt, met name degenen die opgroeiden in de jaren zestig, dan hebben ze geen goed woord voor de jaren zeventig over. Ze zien het als een druilerige, sombere periode - de kater na het feest.'

Onderwijs is niet om te lachen

Onderwijs is niet om te lachen
Indrukwekkende blog over leraren-romans (Nederlandse en Vlaamse literatuur).

Natuurlijk is een leraar in sociaal-psychologische zin een ideaal personage voor een schrijver om zijn dramatische gaven op los te laten (‘dramatisch’ in de zin van het beschrijven van het inwendige leven en het handelen van het personage in een sociale omgeving waarin hij een voorbeeldfunctie heeft, en hij overeind moet blijven waar zoveel ogen op hem gericht zijn). Verder biedt de sociale omgeving van een school, het schoolklimaat met alle tegenstellingen (management-docententeam; docent-leerling; docenten onderling; school-ouders en alle belangenafwegingen vandien) een uitstekende voedingsbodem voor een roman waarin conflictsituaties worden uitgediept. Maar vraag blijft: waarom zo weinig een leraar beschreven die sterk in zijn schoenen staat, die als steun en toeverlaat voor zijn leerlingen fungeert, die enthousiast is en uiterst bekwaam in zijn didactisch handelen. Niet de oplossingen en/of de kansen staan centraal, maar de problemen. In dit opzicht wijken Nederlandse onderwijsromans niet af van de vaak probleemgefocuste teneur in de media.

Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook:

Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook:

Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.

Chuck Palahniuk - Survivor

Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor. Books.Surviver:

The books are never about what you think they are about. Survivor is really about our education system because I feel, more often than not, kids are sort of taught or trained to be the best possible cogs in some big corporate machine. They're not really taught in an empowered way that they can start their own company so that they can create and run their own lives. They are sort of taught to be just good employees, to just fit in.

Charles Knight - Satire and the Academic Novel

Charles Knight, Satire and the Academic Novel. Literary Encyclopedia

The satiric campus novel, in its contemporary form, begins with a cluster of novels written in the 1950s: Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954) and Malcolm Bradbury’s Eating People is Wrong (1959) in Britain; Mary McCarthy’s The Groves of Academe (1953) and Randell Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution (1954) in the United States. But education has been a subject of satire since Aristophanes mocked Socrates in Clouds (423 BC) and Lucian attacked philosophers and rhetoricians in the second century. Novels of education constitute a recognized category including hundreds of examples.

Matt Geroening - School is Hell

Matt Groening, School is Hell. Pantheon Graphic Novels

Each grade is another level of hell. Each teacher another conductor with a weirder whistle urging you onward. In these 48 comics, Matt Groening gives you something to hide in your textbook and read in class secretl

Andrew Trees - Academy X.

Andrew Trees, Academy X.
The New York Times Book Review:

The author of "Academy X," an actual private high school teacher in New York named Andrew Trees, is out to settle this score. He started with a book, yes, but this is a book clearly meant to go places, like television, the movies or both. It is a satire of a ritzy Manhattan private school, told from the perspective of a young English teacher torn between idealism and cynicism (aren't we all?).

Dietrich Schwanitz - Der Campus

Dietrich Schwanitz - Der Campus. THE:

Germany's overcrowded and bureaucratic university system has provoked one professor into a rather un-German line of attack - satire.
Dietrich Schwanitz, professor of English studies at the University of Hamburg, caused a sensation this summer when his provocative new novel, Der Campus, was serialised in the regional daily, Hamburger Abendblatt. Bricks were thrown through a bookshop window and one venue where he gave a reading provided bodyguards.Now as some 40,000 students return to Hamburg for the start of the winter semester this week, Professor Schwanitz has turned from fiction to fact to criticise the bureaucracy which he believes is blocking much needed university reforms.

Dietrich Schwanitz - Obituaries, News - The Independent

Few writers in Germany were as notorious as Dietrich Schwanitz, the professor of English whose vitriolic pen skewered the country's education system and and satirised an academic world ruled by political correctness and decisions by committee. As if his unconventional attitude and fame were not enough to incite his colleagues' distrust and even envy, Schwanitz also achieved apparently effortlessly what most academics can only dream of: writing books which became bestsellers.

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberyy Finn.

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberyy Finn.
SparkNotes: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Themes, Motifs & Symbols

When Huck plans to head west at the end of the novel in order to escape further “sivilizing,” he is trying to avoid more than regular baths and mandatory school attendance.

Satire and Humor in Education

Satire and Humor in Education by Rolland Callaway. Amazon.com.

A collection of satirical and humorous readings related to education and schooling. The editor contends that perhaps educators, and others, have taken the issues and problems of education too seriously and a satirical and humorous perspective might lighten their task. The readings are categorized according to goals and curriculum; instruction including subcategories on organization, resources, teachers and teaching, learners and learning; evaluation and research; and futures. The editor has provided very little editorial comment, leaving that up to the reader. As noted in the introduction by Will Roy a Professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee"...[these essays] aim to deflate pompousness, annoy authority, shake the status quo, empower the little people, bring reality into the Ivory Tower, spur change, and primarily, allow us to take ourselves less seriously."

Harper Lee - To kill a mockingbird

Harper lee, To kill a mocking bird.

SparkNotes: To Kill a Mockingbird: Themes, Motifs & Symbols

The Importance of Moral Education

Because exploration of the novel’s larger moral questions takes place within the perspective of children, the education of children is necessarily involved in the development of all of the novel’s themes. In a sense, the plot of the story charts Scout’s moral education, and the theme of how children are educated—how they are taught to move from innocence to adulthood—recurs throughout the novel (at the end of the book, Scout even says that she has learned practically everything except algebra). This theme is explored most powerfully through the relationship between Atticus and his children, as he devotes himself to instilling a social conscience in Jem and Scout. The scenes at school provide a direct counterpoint to Atticus’s effective education of his children: Scout is frequently confronted with teachers who are either frustratingly unsympathetic to children’s needs or morally hypocritical. As is true of To Kill a Mockingbird’s other moral themes, the novel’s conclusion about education is that the most important lessons are those of sympathy and understanding, and that a sympathetic, understanding approach is the best way to teach these lessons. In this way, Atticus’s ability to put himself in his children’s shoes makes him an excellent teacher, while Miss Caroline’s rigid commitment to the educational techniques that she learned in college makes her ineffective and even dangerous.

What are examples of satire involving education, court system, religion, and democracy in "To Kill a Mockingbird?" - To Kill a Mockingbird - Questions & Answers

There are many examples of each of these institutions being satirized, but I will give you a few. First of all, education is satirized because Scout is chastised by her teacher for reading too well! The court system and democracy are satirized in that they both fail miserably. Tom Robinson is unjustly accused and tried for a crime he did not commit because of his skin color, and there is no democracy for him nor hope for freedom. Religion is satirized when Calpurnia takes the children to her Black church and the congregation is prejudiced against Jem and Scout because they are White. Also, in a town that thinks of themselves as religious, there is little evidence of any religious precepts. Look further at enotes links for more ideas!

The film: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) van Robert Mulligan

Paul Verrept - Meneer Gijs

Uit: Meneer Grijs, een liefdesverhaal in kleur. Paul Verrept en Riske Lemmens. Villa Kakelbont.

Wat is het grijs, denkt meneer Grijs.
Hij kijkt in de spiegel, dan uit het raam:
eerst zijn vale gezicht, dan wolken en regen. Altijd die regen.

Wat zal ik doen vandaag?, vraagt hij zich af.
Ach. Ik doe gewoon als elke dag.

In de klas spelen de kinderen.
Meneer Grijs laat ze doen en kijkt uit het raam.
Waar blijft die regen toch vandaan komen?
Dan ziet hij haar. Ze loopt over de speelplaats.
Ze is de juf van de derde klas.

Wat beweegt ze mooi, denk meneer Grijs.
En wat een prachtige rok.

Californication

An interview (Los Angeles Times)

This season is built around Hank becoming a writing professor and from what I understand, you studied literature in school. Did that inform your character this year?
David Duchovny: *I guess I taught in a similar capacity to him. I was a teaching assistant when I was in graduate school, so I kind of understand what that is but I don’t know if that informs it so much. I guess it’s just that I don’t feel too worried that I can’t pull off a lecturer, you know?

Riikka Pulkkinen - De grens

Riikka Pulkkinen - De grens

Gezocht en gevonden: de vrouwelijke tegenhanger van Paolo Giordano, het sexy brein achter 'De eenzaamheid van de priemgetallen'. Riikka Pulkkinen is even jong, aantrekkelijk én intelligent. Haar debuut 'De grens' (De Arbeiderspers) is in haar eigen Finland een dikke hit, net zoals Giordano's priemgetallen in Italië. Die is na zijn thuisland aan de verovering van de wereld begonnen; zo ver is Pulkkinen nog niet, maar ze heeft er wel de troeven voor. Niet in de laatste plaats een verrassend straf boek.
Giordano exploreert in zijn debuut de gevoelswereld van twee eenzame pubers; Pulkkinen houdt het bij één eenzame puber en een handvol loners van diverse leeftijden. De zestienjarige Mari laat zich door haar leraar Fins, Julian, verleiden tot een stomende seksrelatie. Dat haar puberhartje gebroken zal worden, hangt in de lucht. Risky business, want Mari speelt graag met de gedachte dat ook jonge meisjes kunnen sterven, en kerft daarbij diepe sneden in haar strakke, zachte huid.

Toch heeft Julian niet veel last van gewetensbezwaren. Hij zet zelfs zijn gezin op het spel, want zijn zesjarige dochter Anni ruikt snel onraad. Het kind is de jongste eenzaat op Pulkkinens schouwtoneel, maar niet de meest onschuldige. Ook de oudste verloren ziel in 'De grens', Mari's tante Anja, gaat gebukt onder schuld. Geveld door alzheimer slijt haar man zijn dagen kwijlend in een verzorgingstehuis. Toen hij Anja nog herkende, heeft hij haar gesmeekt het niet zo ver te laten komen. De vraag is nu: doodt ze hem of doodt ze hem niet?

Riikka Pulkkinen weet haar personages scherp neer te zetten: van de pientere zesjarige over de ontspoorde puber langs de geile verleider tot de tragische tante. Ze flirten elk met de grens van het moreel verderfelijke. De debutante doet haar job goed, ook al drogen de delen over Anja op tot voorspelbare flashbacks en stevent puber Mari op een grotesk einde af. Maar dat is detailkritiek.

Humo: The Wild Site

Va, vis et deviens van Radu Mihaileanu

Va, vis et deviens*

De Frans-Roemeense regisseur *Radu Mihaileanu* vertelt in *Va, vis et deviens *een ontroerend menselijk levensverhaal. We bevinden ons in 1984 in een vluchtelingenkamp in Soedan. Voor Joodse Ethiopiërs is de redding nabij wanneer zij naar Israël gebracht worden. Een Ethiopische moeder maakt daarom een hartverscheurende beslissing en dwingt haar 9-jarige zoon om zich als Jood op te geven om zo aan een hongersdood te ontsnappen. Het jongetje wordt in Israël geadopteerd door een Franse familie, maar kan hij zijn geheim bewaren?

Canvas 16.11.2009

Een deel van het verhaal speelt zich op school af:

De opgroeiende Schlomo wordt gevolgd van zijn 9e tot zijn 26e jaar waarin hij afstudeert als arts. In het beloofde land heerst wantrouwen tegenover die zwarte joden en op school heerst racisme. Het pleeggezin doet hun best om de zogezegde vrome joodse gast terwille te zijn. Vooral de grootvader speelt met zijn humor een grote rol. De jongen blijft in gedachten solidair met zijn moeder en wil niet eten en slaapt op de grond. Langzamerhand wint de pleegmoeder zijn vertrouwen en slaagt hij erin zijn nieuwe identiteit als Jood vol overtuiging aan te nemen. Als hij op latere leeftijd verliefd wordt op een meisje uit een orthodox-Joods milieu komt hij echter in conflict met zichzelf.

The Israeli Government's Official Website, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Dare

Movie Review - Dare - Drama of High School, Starring Eros and Anxiety - NYTimes.com

'Dare' written by David Brind, directed by Adam Salky and based on their short film of the same title, stakes out familiar territory and, true to its name, strikes out in some risky new directions. This high school semi-romance, which blends comic and tearful moods, is at once more provocative and more contemplative than most of its big-screen counterparts. On television and in young-adult novels, candor — or prurience — about teenage behavior is the norm, but Hollywood movies tend to keep one foot firmly planted in a more innocent wor

Alexa at least at first, seems to embody an established teen-comedy archetype. She is a modest dresser, a diligent student and generally a cautious, sensible college-track soul. She’s also the star of her drama class, but her interest in acting may have more to do with academic ambition than with creative passion. That, at least, is what she hears from an alumnus of her school, now a successful stage actor), when he returns to his alma mater to give a master class. see

Dare:

*/DARE/*
*The Story*: Three high school seniors (Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Ashley Springer) on the cusp of diving into the world get involved in a complicated relationship.
*The Pitch:* /Cruel Intentions/ meets /Reckless/ *Who It's For:* People who like very serious looks at high school kids sex lives.
*Cause for Hope:* Looks more thoughtful and interesting than typical high school film; happy return to the screen of Sandra Bernhard. see

**

Teaching with movies

U.S. History Lesson Plans - United States, Movies, Film, Videos

Wiki; education in popular culture

Category:Education in popular culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Category:Education in popular culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

High School Movies

High School Movies: All Time Top 10 | Movie Room Reviews


With a focus on the last two decades, this list of high school movies includes the top ten great movies with a predominantly high school oriented theme. In order to be considered among the best high school movies, the film has to star high school students, target a largely teenage or high school oriented audience, and generally center around characters that are in high school, with a significant portion of the film taking place in the high school environment.

Here are the top ten great high school films that pass the test:

10. Superbad – Time wise, a close follow up to Napoleon Dynamite, this somewhat crude high school comedy helped launch Jonah Hill’s career as an leading actor. Adventureland Director Greg Mottola also directed this movie.

9. Swimfan – A suspense thriller high school movie, Swim Fan is a story about an obsessed girl, Madison (Erika Christensen), who falls for the school’s top swimmer (Jesse Bradford). When he wants to break things off to stay with his girlfriend, Madison is none too happy.

8. Bring It On – This high school film celebrates the best of clicky, overly happy, and highly competitive teenage girls who love to cheer. Two competing high school cheer squads work to become cheer champs.

7. John Tucker Must Die – Starring “the guy from Desperate Housewives” (Jesse Metcalfe), John Tucker Must Die is a romantic high school comedy about the popular jock who is humbled by the new girl (Brittany Snow). Ashanti, Sophia Bush, and Arielle Kebbell add to this formidable cast.

6. Can’t Buy Me Love – One of the best 80s movies, this romantic high school comedy is perhaps best known for starring a young Patrick Dempsey. For many, it is an iconic 80s film about the popular girl and the geeky guy getting together.

5. The New Guy – With a various heavy high school theme, The New Guy starred DJ Qualls and Eliza Dushku. The movie was about an unpopular guy (Qualls) who reinvents himself after moving to a new school. His new attitude transcends his modest frame, which rallies his school to its first football win in a long time and captures the heart of a popular girl (Dushku). There are plenty of laughs.

4. Juno – Ellen Page proved her worth in this 2007 high school movie about a teenage girl who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy. She goes back and forth between whether to have the kid, and whether to give it up for adoption to a young couple (Justin Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Very humorous and quirky comedy with an excellent message!

3. Mean Girls – The ultimate high school film, this movie is about a new girl (Lindsay Lohan) who changes her persona to impress the popular girls in school and to win over the handsome jock. While poking fun at common click behaviors, the movie closes with a nice message.

2. Election – One of Reece Witherspoon’s early movies, Election remains one of the most classic high school movies even after 10 years (1999). An overly ambitious high school student (Witherspoon) gets under the skin of one of the school’s most popular teachers (Matthew Broderick) when she campaigns for student body president.

1. Napoleon Dynamite - This 2004 film not only landed an iconic high school movie it created an entire cultural revolution, completion with fashion and apparel (”Vote For Pedro” shirts).

SUPER #1. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Because this 1986 high school comedy has such an elite status among movies with high school students and themes, it has to stand alone above the rest of the top 10 list of high school movies. Matthew Broderick never has never had a better role and movie than his performance in this very funny film about a high school student who takes a remarkably ambitious day off from school.

Schooling in the Silverscreen

Schooling the Silverscreen: Representation of Education in U.S. Films, 1910-2009: Defining the New Millenium: 2000-2009

The purpose of this blog is to show the trends and changes over time in the representation of schooling in U.S. films between 1910 and 2009. The emphasis is to look at the historical development of schools and higher education institutions in popular culture.

Meester en Knecht

Meester en leerling - feestbundel ter ere van DANIEL KNECHT (Samenstelling Yanick Maes)

Voor het emeritaat van prof. dr. Daniël Knecht, die klassieke filologie doceerde aan de Universiteit Gent, werden door classicus Yanick Maes in deze mooie veelzijdige bundel bijdragen (..). De lezer zal dan ook teksten vinden van Ausonius, Statius, Augustinus, Claudius Claudianus, Lucretius... Stuk voor stuk grote namen uit de Latijnse Literatuurgeschiedenis.

De onderwerpen van de teksten gaan - niet te verwonderen - vooral over het onderwijs: vaak wordt met diepe genegenheid teruggedacht aan oude leermeesters, zoals in de teksten van Seneca Rhetor, Persius en Ausonius die spreekt voer zijn leermeesters in Bordeaux. Of men roemt het onderwijs dat men heeft genoten van de grote, vaak strenge maar rechtvaardige leraars. Zo kijkt Achilles in Statius' Achilleïs terug op zijn harde opvoeding die hem heeft gemaakt tot wat hij is geworden.
Maar er kan ook al eens gelachen worden met het onderwijs: de bijdrage uit Petronius' Satyricon brengt een scabreus verhaal over een leraar die tot over zijn oren verliefd wordt op zijn knappe leerling, en Fronto, de mentor van keizer Marcus Aurelius, drijft op ironische wijze de spot met diens niet aflatende werklust. Grote mannen moeten zich ook op tijd en stond ontspannen...

Resnais: La Vie est un roman

La vie est un roman (1983) - Alain Resnais

Plot - imdb:

Three intertwined tales. On the eve of the First World War, Count Forbek starts to build a fantastic castle in the Ardennes forest. After the war he uses it to start a utopian society by brainwashing his friends, including his former fiancee, Livia, and her husband. In the present day, the castle is being used as an alternative school and, in the summer holidays, for an educational conference. At the conference, the American Nora Winkle bets Claudine that the ernest public school teacher Elisabeth Rousseau will be enticed into the bed of Robert Dufresne, even though the principal speaker, Walter Guarini, is obviously interested in Elisabeth. Meanwhile, the children staying at the castle over the holidays invent their own medieval tale about freeing prisoners from the dungeon

Indian campus novels

Suggesties ivm Indian Campus Novels

What do you think which is the first campus novel that rock in India. Obviously The Five point Someone by Chetan bhagat.But their is a novel by R.K. Naraynan called "Bachelor Of Arts" can be considered as the first campus novel. But it all began the instant Chetan Bhagat get published his book about the IIT. Nowadays you can find a new novel by newcomers on every bookstand. People started reading these types of books, And the most important we are the students who are in engineering college or medical colleges or in any colleges are reading them most. Because we try to interrelate these stories with ourselves. So these days every novel which has some better content is becoming a bestseller.Here I am going to illustrate the name of some novels that I have read.


http://scribedbyme.blogspot.com/2009/10/indian-campus-novels-look.html

What do you think which is the first campus novel that rock in India. Obviously The Five point Someone by Chetan bhagat.But their is a novel by R.K. Naraynan called "Bachelor Of Arts" can be considered as the first campus novel. But it all began the instant Chetan Bhagat get published his book about the IIT. Nowadays you can find a new novel by newcomers on every bookstand. People started reading these types of books, And the most important we are the students who are in engineering college or medical colleges or in any colleges are reading them most. Because we try to interrelate these stories with ourselves. So these days every novel which has some better content is becoming a bestseller.Here I am going to illustrate the name of some novels that I have read.

Life During Campus Novels
1. Five point Someone - Chetan Bhagat (It was a great start, so must read this.)
2. Keep of the Grass - Karan Bajaj (Superb , Pllzzz don't compare with Chetan, he has his own style).
3. Mediocre but Arrogant- Abhbijit Bhaduri (Good one, You will love the book..)
4. A Sunny Shady Life -Sachinn Garg (I liked it , good content)
5. Anything For You Mam - Tushar Raheja (People love the funny Incidents)
6. Everything You Desire -Harshdeep Jolly ( A one timer..if you just want to know about the life @ IIMs)
7. Above Average- Amitabh Bagchi (Well written, I love it..)
8. Sumthing of a Mocktale - Soma Das (No comments plzzzz)
9. Nine Months Ago - Manish Gupta (A well try but my expectation are more higher from it..)
10. Love, Life and Dream On - Animesh Verma (Dream , Dream....and dream again)
11. Of Course I love You - Durjoy Dutta And Manvi Ahuja(Keep rocking.....)



LIFE POST CAMPUS NOVELS

1. The next three Novels by Chetan bhagat
2. If God was the Banker - Ravi Subramanian (He rocked in his debut novel)
3. Funda Of Mixology - Mayank Dhar( Life teaches you things that IIMs cannot)
4. Now that You are Rich.. let's fall in love -Durjoy Dutta And Manvi Ahuja (Rocking Duo rock again)
5. Married but Available - Abhijit Bhaduri ( He has increased his fan following with his next MBA)
6. Glian the Son of Nature - Shubham Basu (If you Love wild life You love the book.)

Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal

Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal

A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power. The sudden and total publicity seems to turn every act into a performance and every platform into a stage. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theater are forced to meet, and soon the boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve.

David Gilmour, The Film Club.

David Gilmour, The Film Club.


David Gilmour: a website

His latest book, The Film Club, is a non-fiction account of what happened when he let his teenage son drop out of school -- on condition that he watch three movies a week with his father.

Kawakami, De tas van de leraar

Hiromi Kawakami, De tas van de leraar. Atlas.


Hoewel geen echte schoolfilm, maar toch over een verhouding leraar-leerling:

Tsukiko is achtendertig jaar en alleen. Voor de liefde, zo gelooft zij, is zij niet gemaakt. Dan ziet ze in een kroeg voor het eerst in twintig jaar Sensei, een leraar uit haar middelbareschooltijd, terug. Vanaf dat moment ontmoeten ze elkaar daar geregeld en gaan ze samen op paddenstoelenjacht, naar een feestje onder de kersenbloesems en naar een herberg op een eiland. Allebei zoeken ze elkaars toenadering, terwijl ze die op hetzelfde moment ontvluchten – Sensei door de herinneringen aan zijn vrouw, die hem jaren geleden verliet, en Tsukiko door afspraakjes te maken met mannen van haar eigen leeftijd. Terwijl de dagen rustig voortkabbelen, weten Sensei en Tsukiko echter het leeftijdsverschil te overstijgen en de droefheid in elkaars hart te verlichten.

Reading List campus novels

Conversational Reading: A Reading List from Mark McGurl's The Program Era

In particular, McGurl has a little bit of fun working with the "campus novel" genre, and I'll put a few of his selections here: / /

* /The Big U/, by Neal Stephenson.
* /Japanese by Spring/, by Ishmael Reed. /
/
* /Moo/, by Jane Smiley. /
/
* /Straight Man/, by Richard Russo.
* "Westward the Course of Empire Makes Its Way," by David Foster
Wallace (from /The Girl with the Curious Hair/). /
/
* /The Dean's December/, by Saul Bellow. /
/
* /The Groves of Academe/, by Mary McCarthy. /
/
* /Blue Angel/, by Francine Prose.
* /The Disguises of Love/, by Robie Macauley. /
/
* /Galatea 2.2/, by Richard Powers. /
/
* /The Professor of Desire/, by Philip Roth.
* /The Handmaid of Desire/, by John L'Heureux. /
/
* /Pale Fire/, by Vladimir Nabokov. /
/
* /The Professors Like Vodka/, by Harold Loeb.

He leaves out /Pictures from an Institution/, by Randall Jarrell, but you shouldn't--read that one first.

Orwell: Such, such were the joys

Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys

"Such, Such Were the Joys" is a long autobiographical essay by English writer George Orwell, written in the 1940's, but not published until 1952, after the author's death. It tells a story based on Orwell's experiences, between the ages of eight and thirteen in the years before and during World War I, at St Cyprian's preparatory school for boys in Eastbourne, Sussex.



George Orwell: Such, Such Were The Joys
on-line

"Soon after I arrived at St Cyprian's (not immediately, but after a week or two, just when I seemed to be settling into the routine of school
life) I began wetting my bed. I was now aged eight, so that this was a reversion to a habit which I must have grown out of at least four years earlier. Nowadays, I believe, bed-wetting in such circumstances is taken for granted. It is normal reaction in children who have been removed from their homes to a strange place".

Gouden Palm

"Michael Haneke is verdiende Gouden Palmwinnaar" - Cultuur - nieuws - Knack.be - 25.5.2009 http://www.knack.be/nieuws/cultuur/michael-haneke-is-verdiende-gouden-palmwinnaar/site72-section44-article33816.html

"Michael Haneke is verdiende Gouden Palmwinnaar"

Een editie met weinig uitschieters maar met een verdiende Gouden Palmwinnaar, dat is de communis opinio over het 62e filmfestival van Cannes. De Oostenrijkse regisseur Michael Haneke schoot er de hoofdvogel af met zijn heimatkroniek Das Weisse Band .
Daarin brengt Haneke het groepsportret van een Noord-Duitse dorpsgemeenschap die anno 1913 wordt opgeschrikt door enkele bizarre, gewelddadige incidenten. Tegelijk toont hij hoe de verschillende klassen er op gespannen voet met elkaar samenleven, en vooral: hoe de rigide religieuze moraal en de al even strenge onderwijsmethodes sporen nalaten bij de lokale kinderen.
Hoewel de insteek enigszins doet denken aan de suspensethriller The Village , is Das Weisse Band vooral een politieke allegorie over het ontstaan van het fascisme, maar dan zonder Hanekes bekende choquante exploten of brechtiaanse vervreemdingstechnieken.

Das Weisse Band - Haneke

Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) van Michael Haneke nu in Cannes (officiële selectie)

A village in Protestant northern Germany. 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I.
The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers.
Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual.
Who is behind it all?

Thirteen - Hardwick

Thirteen. Digg

Regie: Catherine Hardwicke
Scenario: Catherine Hardwicke, Nikki Reed
Met: Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Holly Hunter, Jeremy Sisto, Brady Corbet, Deborah Kara Unger
USA-UK/100 min/2003

'Thirteen' vertelt het verhaal van de dertienjarige Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood). Ze woont samen met haar moeder Mel (Holly Hunter) en haar broer Mason (Brady Corbet). Haar vader is een rijke zakenman, maar is inmiddels al enige tijd van haar moeder gescheiden. Bovendien ziet hij maar weinig om naar zijn twee kinderen. Tracy leidt een op het eerste zicht vrij minzaam leven, gaat braaf naar school en vervult haar huishoudelijke taken. Als ze echter kennismaakt met the hottest chick op school, Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), starten de problemen. Evie introduceert Tracy in een wereld waar seks, drugs en criminaliteit centraal staan. Ze neemt Tracy mee op haar tochten van seksuele avonturen, maar zorgt er bijvoorbeeld ook voor dat Tracy enkele piercings laat plaatsen. Evie zelf staat onder toezicht van voogd Brooke (Deborah Kara Unger), zelf verslaafd aan drugs. Aldus weet ze zich in de woonst van Tracy te praten, waardoor ze stilaan mee deel gaat uitmaken van het gezin. Zo ook de zopas terug uit de gevangenis vrijgelaten vriend (Jeremy Sisto) van Mel. Thuis komt het geregeld tot conflicten.

De Decaan - Gustafsson

Gustafsson, De Decaan. Nieuwe recensies

De Zweedse auteur (1936) is vooral bekend als filosoof, romancier en dichter. Van 1982 tot 2006 was hij hoogleraar aan de universiteit van Austin in Texas. Deze periode heeft hem veelvuldig in zijn auteurschap geïnspireerd, wat ook voor deze roman geldt. Hoofdpersoon is de filosofieprofessor S.C. Spencer, die in een motel aan de rand van de Texaanse woestijn over zijn leven als plaatsvervangende decaan van het 'College of Liberal Arts' van de universiteit van Austin verhaalt. Centraal staat daarbij zijn chef, de decaan. Met deze aan de rolstoel gekluisterde Vietnamveteraan deelt hij een voortdurend intellectueel spel tussen fictie, theorie en realiteit, waarvan niet helemaal duidelijk wordt in hoeverre de realiteit in de vorm van een vriendin, een rijke neef en het disfunctioneren van de universiteitspresident een vooropgezet plannetje is, waarbij zelfs een moord lijkt voor te komen. Na de volledige verdwijning van Spencer worden zijn papieren als fragment teruggevonden. Een fascinerend chaotische roman, die de lezer in een literair denkavontuur stort. Verzorgde uitgave; zeer kleine druk.
G. Brandorff

Teacher's Pet

Teacher's Pet (1958): Clark Gable, Doris Day, Mamie Van Doren - PopMatters Film Review

In the late 1950s, thanks to the GI bill, a college education could lead up the corporate ladder. Also unexpectedly, the film casts this tension against a New York City backdrop, and displays a gritty social conscience, much like the previous year's /12 Angry Men/, with which it also shares an affection for craggy white male faces, such as Clark Gable's. He plays hardboiled Manhattan newspaper editor Frank Gannon, who never graduated high school and subsequently thinks college is a lot of baloney. When asked to give a guest lecture at a continuing adult education college, he responds with a venomous letter asserting that one can't teach journalism; college, he writes, is just "amateurs teaching amateurs how to be amateurs." But his boss twists his arm, so away he goes.

Kouba - De leraar

Kouba, De Leraar

De nieuwe roman wordt voorgesteld door *Walter Van Steenbrugge*, strafpleiter.
De avond wordt muzikaal opgeluisterd door *DJ Ricardo Tubbs*.

Op vrijdag 13 maart 2009 om 20 uur in Brasserie Trapkes Op /(het clubhuis van de Koninklijke Roeivereniging Club Gent)/, vlakbij de Watersportbaan, Yachtdreef 2, 9000 Gent

De toegang is gratis.

Het is geen noodzaak of verplichting maar het is handig als u ons vooraf laat weten of u komt, stuur een mailtje naar paul.luyten@walry.be

Sarvasakshi

Sarvasakshi - The Omniscient
NYTimes.com

A schoolteacher incurs the wrath of a local witchdoctor when he tries to get his students inoculated to prevent an epidemic in this moral melodrama. Superstitions of the old India collide with the medical advancements of the modern world. The teacher's wife goes to the witchdoctor after the death of the couple's child. When the witchdoctor demands a human sacrifice, the crusading teacher is accused of providing him with a victim and becomes ostracized by the villagers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Asani Sanket - Distant Thunder

Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder): A film by Satyajit Ray

The film is set in 1943-44, when the famine struck Bengal during the British rule in India. It was a man made famine. As the British government cornered the civilian food supply for its armies, the people starved. The famine claimed the lives of five million people. The story takes place in a small village during the World War II. The famine affects the lives of the families in different ways.

Gangacharan, an educated Brahmin, has recently arrived to settle in the village with his wife. He decides to teach and conduct religious ceremonies in exchange for being supported by the villagers. The villagers readily agree. His wife, Ananga, is a sensuous woman. She is sensitive, giving, and devoted to her husband.

R.K.Narayan -The English Teacher

R.K.Narayan -The English Teacher
Natuon Master

Krishna is a Literature or English Lecturer in Albert Mission College. His life changes when his wife, Susila, contracts typhoid after a dirty encounter in a lavatory. She died from the illness. Krishna feels desolate but one day he receives a letter from a stranger who tells him that the deceased Susila wishes to communicate with him! R.K Narayan's skilful writing makes the incredible seem believable. And so begins Krishna's journey towards self-fulfilment... Along the way he also meets an eccentric Headmaster who loves children.

Kannada - Tembares

Hindi version of Moilys Kannada novel highlights education liberates the poor
ThaiIndian.com

By Sandeep Datta
New Delhi, Sep.15 (ANI): Senior Congress leader Dr.M.Verrappa Moilys Kannada novel Tembares Hindi version was released on Monday in the capital.
As a novel, Dhol (or, the drum) approves the hegemonic argument of education liberates the poor.
I spent five years researching for this novel. The novel hence showcases real culture and characters of those people who are illiterate. This is a story of a person , who is untouchable in day time but divine at night time. They are treated as slave and treated as divine at night. This is not my work, it is exactly of those real people of the group of society my novel is talking about, said Dr.M.Veerappa Moily, the novelist cum senior Congress leader at the Triveni Kala Sangam on the release.

Sur - Tanuja Chandra

Sur (2002) van Tanuja Chandra'
zie IloveIndia

"Sur" stars Lucky Ali and Gauri Karnik. It was released in 2002. Director Tanuja Chandra's "Sur" is a touching human drama that explores the subtle nuances of a relationship between a middle-aged music teacher and his young female student.

Vikramaditya Singh (Lucky Ali) is a music composer. He also runs a small musical school, where he teaches music. Although a singer himself, he is not satisfied with his compositions. He nurses the dream of finding a great student and polishing his or her talent. His search ends when he hears Tina (Gauri Karnik) singing in a church. He takes her under his wings and trains her. However, he starts feeling jealous of her when she turns out to be better than him. However, towards the end, he realizes his mistakes and gets her to perform in a concert. In the end, Tina becomes a successful singer and Vikramaditya returns back to teaching music to his students.

Hey Teacher. You look good in films

Hey teacher! You look good in films-Bollywood-Entertainment-The Times of India

An idealistic teacher. A class of cynical, antisocial youngsters. They meet. They clash. But in the end, the guru shows the way.

Satyen Bose’s Jagriti in 1954 and the 1955 Glenn Ford-starrer Blackboard Jungle were probably the earliest films, in Bollywood and Hollywood respectively, to explore the genre of the inspirational teacher. There have been many films on similar themes that followed. Incidentally, 2007 seems to have been the year of the teacher or coach for Bollywood — Chak De! India, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, Aaja Nachle, Good Boy Bad Boy, Nanhe Jaisalmer and now Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par. BT looks back on some of the most popular screen teachers...

The Guide: ‘A story as fresh as the girls in their minis... And as cool as their teacher had to be!’ To Sir, With Love is one film every teacher would want every student to see. “I don’t think there’s any school that hasn’t screened this film to its students,” says Naresh Rao, a lecturer. Others with similar storylines were The Principal, Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me, and Dangerous Minds. Says theatre person Ratan Thakore Grant, “The teacher in Dead Poets’ Society got his students to believe in themselves. He taught them something they would never learn from their textbooks. This film tops my list of favourites.” Adds Naresh, “Of the many Bollywood films about teachers, I like Imtihaan the best. Vinod Khanna portrayed the ideal leader. The character was etched out very powerfully.”

The Coach: Music of the Heart, Take the Lead, Mr Holland’s Opus, The Man Without a Face, Karate Kid, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady , Sur, Sir, Rockford, Iqbal, Black — the list of films that took teaching beyond the confines of a classroom is long. This year, of course, Chak De! ’s Kabir Khan made the biggest impact. “ Chak De ! showed a teacher as being selfless, which is how a guide should be,” says Ratan, adding, “A teacher is not someone who sits up there and gives instructions.

A teacher can be anyone who has a positive influence in your life. My favourite films would be The Fountainhead (based on the Ayn Rand novel), Pay It Forward and Iqbal. Guru Dutt’s Pyasa is a good example of teaching gone wrong.”

Jagriti - Satyen Bose (1954)

Jagriti - Satyen Bose (1954)

The film was copied in 1957 Pakistani film "Bedari" produced by Rafiq Rizvi. Even the songs were copied by replacing "Hindustan" by "Pakistan"

The film is about a spoiled rich kid, Ajay (Rajkumar Gupta),who is a problem child and is sent away to a boarding school by his grandfather. The board school is run by Shekhar (Abhi Bhattacharya). Shekhar tries to instill good values in the students using unorthodox teaching methods. He gains the students' trust and educates them about the heritage of their country and encourages them to become model citizens. At the boarding school, Ajay continues his ways and gets into trouble all the time, including with Shekhar. Meanwhile, Ajay meets and befriends a crippled boy named Shakti (Rattan Kumar) who's character is the opposite of Ajay. Shakti tries very hard to help Ajay change his ways, but Ajay's stubborn nature gets in the way.

Finally one day, Ajay attempts to leave the hostel and Shakti finds out. Shakti tries to go after him and stop him but his handicap slows him down and his earnestness to get Ajay back causes him to lose track of the heavy traffic on the road. That is when Shakti is run over in a horrific accident. This was the triggering moment in Ajay, realizing that it was because of his stubbornness, Shakti died. His moves him to change and become a better person. He goes on to excel in academics and sports.Meanwhile, Shekhar's method of teaching wins approval by the education board in the end. He decides to leave the boarding school to spread his message elsewhere through his unorthodox but ...

Wikipedia

Nieuwe golf schoolfilms

De 'schoolfilm' boert goed de laatste tijd. Blijkbaar
fascineert het thema menig regisseur vandaag.
Na Entre les murs en Elève libre kwamen de voorbije
weken diverse films (helaas soms zeer kort) in de zalen:

Honoré, Christophe (2008). La Belle personne. (F)
Verheyde, Sylvie (2008). Stella. (F)

En nu is er alweer een specimen in de bioscoop (o.m. Sfinx -Gent) te zien:

Shanley, John Patrick (2008). Doubt. (US)

Het valt op dat de recente golf van films waarin onderwijs
een hoofdthema of nevenmotief vormt sterke auteursfilms
zijn die deels afwijken van de bekende Hollywood-template
(leraar als 'held' of 'redder').

IV

JP Shanley, Doubt

John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
uit Cinescene:

According to a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, over four thousand clerics were accused of sexual abuse during the past fifty years. Although approximately thirty percent of these accusations were not investigated because they were unsubstantiated, given the proclivity of the bishops to cover up these incidents, the figures are widely suspected to be underestimated. What may be lost in the discussion of statistics about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, however, is an understanding of the humanity of the people involved or the complexities of the circumstances.

This factor is brought to light in */Doubt/*, John Patrick Shanley’s filmed version of his Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning stage play. Based on Shanley’s personal experiences at Catholic School, the film explores not only the issue of possible sexual abuse but conservative versus progressive religious values and how far one can rely on suspicion in the absence of proof. In 1964, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) is the dragon lady of St. Nicholas school in the Bronx. A strict taskmaster, she relishes her role as the upholder of tradition, rejecting such modern devices as ballpoint pens and the singing of secular songs at Christmas like "Frosty the Snowman," which she equates with pagan magic.

Doubt (2008 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Autobiografische onderwijsromans

N.a.v. recensie van Siebelinks roman

Nu kun je bij Siebelink gelukkig spreken van twee oeuvres: naast romans waarin de strenge godsdienstbeleving een grote rol speelt, zijn er boeken die gesitueerd zijn in het onderwijs en /Suezkade/ past hier duidelijk in. Als voormalig docent kent hij het leven op een middelbare school uit ervaring. Binnen het genre van de (autobiografische) onderwijsroman hebben ook L.H. Wiener en Robert Anker geschreven over de leraar die geïntrigeerd raakt door een leerlinge en dat heeft boeiende literatuur opgeleverd. Is dat ook zo bij /Suezkade/?

Interview Maarten Bril

Interview met Maarten Bril

Schrijven is een vak. Dat klinkt makkelijk, en voor de hand liggend. Maar waar leer je dat vak? Als je loodgieter wilt worden (daar kun je meer mee verdienen dan met schrijven), is de weg duidelijk: je gaat of bij je vader in de leer, of naar een school die je de basisbeginselen van het loodgieten bijbrengt. Daarna ga je werken voor een baas, die alles van lood en gieten weet, en na een jaar of tien ben je volleerd loodgieter en kan het grote, deels zwarte binnenlopen beginnen.

Voor schrijvers ligt het anders.

In mijn tijd, eind jaren zeventig, was er geen geen opleiding voor. Op de lagere school leerde je het alfabet, op de middelbare school kreeg je een paar leuke boeken mee (/Kort Amerikaans, Het Bittere Kruid, Het Behouden Huis/) en als je dan nog steeds schrijver wilde worden, ging je Nederlands studeren. Meestal werd je dan leraar. Er zijn heel wat leraren die in hun vrije tijd romans zijn gaan schrijven, vele van die boeken werden ooit ook uitgegeven, maar geen daarvan zal de eeuwigheid ooit halen. Eens een leraar, altijd een leraar.

Dus je wilt schrijver worden.

Hoe, in godsnaam?

Ik zelf wilde al schrijver worden op mijn twaalfde. Toen ik zestien was, wilde ik het nog steeds. Niet dat ik veel schreef, helemaal niet, verre van, ik wilde gewoon schrijver worden - /simple comme/ /bonjour/. Wie niet, eigenlijk?

Voor schrijver kon je niet studeren. Of het had Nederlands moeten zijn, maar dan werd je dus leraar, of een schrijvende leraar - nog erger. Ik ging dus filosofie studeren. Het idee daarachter was dat het een studie was waar je veel voor moest lezen - en van lezen komt vanzelf schrijven. Dat klinkt gek, in deze moderne tijden, maar het was dertig jaar geleden al waar, en nu nog steeds.

schijvende leraar Barend Rijdes

Uit de blog Erfgoedman:

Gelezen: de literaire dagboeken van de schrijvende leraar Barend Rijdes (1910-1975), docent aan het Kennemer Lyceum in Haarlem. Zijn wederwaardigheden zijn beschreven in drie afzonderlijke delen (1941-1955, 1955-1965 en 1965-1975), uitgegeven door antiquariaat Lenie Peetoom in de reeks Haarlemse Verkenningen. Rijdes verkeerde in Haarlemse schrijverskringen waarvan ook Godfried Bomans, Lizzy May en Harry Mulisch deel uitmaakten, en ook andere schrijvers die het minder ver hebben gebracht.
In de dagboeken spreekt Rijdes voortdurend twijfels uit over zijn eigen schrijverschap.

25 september 1955
‘Al enige maanden doe ik niets – alle pogingen tot een verhaal te komen lopen op niets uit, ik barst bij wijze van spreken van bruikbare détails maar mis de visie. Mocht dit ooit later een jonge schrijver onder ogen komen (en ben ik dan gebleken, een schrijver te zijn geweest van enig belang) laat hem dit dan troosten. Overigens: deze toestand is deplorabel. Ik mis de zin van het bestaan als ik niet schrijf. En wat is schrijven: vlucht voor jezelf, dat wil zeggen een soort constante boetedoening voor schuld.’

Rijdes zendt bijdragen in naar literaire tijdschriften en krijgt ze weer als afgewezen retour. Soms stuurt hij vijf gedichten in waarvan er maar één geplaatst wordt, maar in plaats van blijdschap hierover overheerst toch ontevredenheid (vooral over zichzelf). Ook veel particuliere beslommeringen en over zijn werk als leraar aan het Kennemer Lyceum.

Kees Beekmans

HP-De Tijd

De schrijvende leraar *Kees Beekmans* moet van zijn directie zijn pen neerleggen. Zijn columns in De Groene Amsterdammer zouden te veel kritiek op de schoolorganisatie bevatten. Beekmans zegt dat hij hoe dan ook zal blijven schrijven.
Beekmans doceert op een ‘zwarte’ school voor praktijkonderwijs (een niveau onder het vmbo) te Amsterdam. In De Groene Amsterdammer, en sinds kort ook tweewekelijks in de Volkskrant, schrijft hij over zijn ervaringen met zijn leerlingen. Ook is hij een graag geziene gast in tv-programma’s.
Onvermijdelijk komt in zijn columns soms ook het beleid van de school aan de orde, zegt Beekmans. “Als ik moeilijkheden heb met leerlingen, kan dat liggen aan de schoolorganisatie. Voorbeeld: als je als school je leerlingen te lang niets te doen geeft, worden ze baldadig.”
De directie heeft gedreigd met ‘disciplinaire maatregelen’ als Beekmans niet stopt met publiceren. Zo’n dertig leraren hebben het in een brief aan de schoolleiding voor hun collega opgenomen.
Deze donderdag heeft Beekmans een gesprek met de hoogste baas van zijn scholengemeenschap, de Esprit Scholen Groep. “Als ik word geschorst? Dan stap ik naar de rechter.”

James Hynes - The Lecturer's Tale.

James Hynes: The Lecturer’s Tale — A Novel (2001). Guardian.

In this pun-rich academic send-up, Professor Nelson Humboldt comes into an unusual gift. When his finger is surgically reattached following a freak accident, he discovers that he can use it to control people. Immediately, he sets about proving that even a little power can corrupt, and takes over the English department in his midwestern university. The meshing of gothic horror and literary theory might seem unlikely, but Hynes puts it to superb comic use in pointing out the absurdities of gender theory, tenure tracks and campus-based culture wars. SJ

Angus- Writing about teaching

Max Angus, 'Writing about Teaching'.

Annual Meeting of the Australian Association for Research on Education,
Hobart, November, 1995

'

Fictional and non-fictional narratives about teaching provide a more accessible source of knowledge about teaching than scientific accounts although they are held in low repute in the academic community.

The Wave

The Wave

De korte film 'The Wave' (50 minuten) is gebaseerd op een experiment van de geschiedenis docent Ron Jones op Cubberley High School in Palo Alto (V.S.) in 1967. (de school werd in 1979 gesloten vanwege te weinig leerlingen)
Jones kreeg van leerlingen de vraag voorgelegd hoe het mogelijk was dat iemand als Hitler zo'n aantrekkingskracht had op mensen. Toen hij het antwoord op die vraag schuldig moest blijven startte hij een experiment.
Dit experiment verliep boven verwachting. Na een paar weken was er een beweging in het leven geroepen, ‘The Wave’ , waarvan de leden op zoek waren naar een sterk gemeenschapsgevoel en een gezonde werk-discipline. Maar al spoedig werd de beweging met zijn mysterieuze leider, een doel op zich. Tegenstanders van ‘The Wave’ werden vijanden en oude vriendschappen werden beëindigd. Kritiek op ‘The Wave’ werd beantwoord met agressie en intimidatie. Een tijd lang leek Jones de controle over de beweging helemaal kwijt tot hij de leden confronteerde met wie hun mysterieuze leider was, Hitler zelf. Deze onthulling shockeerde de leerlingen zeer en velen barstten in huilen uit.
Uitgebreide informatie en didactische voorstellen op histoforum.digischool.

Zie ook artikel van Ron Wave.

Die Welle

nrc.nl - film - Die Welle

Menigeen zal hem in de lessen maatschappijleer ooit hebben gezien, al was het maar om het uur te vullen: de Amerikaanse televisiefilm /The Wave/ (1981). Deze Emmy Award-winnaar was gebaseerd op een experiment van geschiedenisleraar Ron Jones uit 1967. Hij wilde zijn leerlingen laten zien dat het fascisme niet is voorbehouden aan nazi-Duitsland. In de Duitse remake /Die Welle/ heeft de populaire docent Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) hetzelfde uitgangspunt. Als anarchist en ex-kraker wil de in punk T-shirts gehulde Rainer tijdens een studieproject zijn leerlingen graag leren wat anarchie is, maar dat onderwerp is door zijn brave collega gekaapt. Dan maar autocratie. „Niet weer het fascisme”, roepen de scholieren verveeld.

Hun desinteresse prikkelt Rainer tot een experiment. Hij verdeelt de klas in groepen en drilt ze in discipline: zo moeten ze hem aanspreken met ‘Herr Wenger’ en opstaan als ze tegen hem spreken. Hij laat ze een uniform kiezen en sluit andersdenkenden uit. In een paar dagen overspoelt deze beweging de hele school. Ook Rainer zelf wordt meegesleurd door zijn didactische experiment: de vrijbuiter geniet eigenlijk wel van de discipline en de orde in zijn klas.

Didactisch materiaal: DieWelle_Schulmaterial.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Trailer: Die Welle | Ab 06.10.2008 auf DVD, PE und Blu-ray!

Vragen bij de film.

Animated cartoons

Animated Cartoons

Beavis and Butt-head
Bromwell High
King of the Hill
The Simpsons
South Park

Boarding School

The Girls' Boarding School Story
By Eva Margareta Löfgren

Home page McEwing

Richard A. McEwing Home Page

* *Songs About Schooling Popular songs, including the song lyrics
and a bit about the artist or group, related to schooling and the
social challenges to education.
*
* *Films on Schooling Movies and related readings that depict
situations facing teachers in yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's
schools. *
* *Student Creations on Educators Student poems, songs, and artist
creations celebrating noteworthy women and men in the history of
education. *

Academic Books

Academic Books and Papers, Education in Popular Culture

Pop Music

Popular Music, Education in Popular Culture

Popular music is notoriously impervious to interpretation. Lyrics are different to poetry and music can transform their meanings. The supposed (by some) triviality and disposability of pop are further complications. Notwithstanding these factors, below are some songs that have varying degrees of relevance to education and educational issues. Please note that in many cases the information supplied is not (yet) complete. We would appreciate suggestions for inclusion, further information (where missing) and corrections from anybody who can be of assistance.

Telvision

Television, Education in Popular Culture

The output of television is now 24 hour, global and consequently immense. In the United Kingdom and the United States, there is a particular interest in dramas and documentaries that focus on crime and the police services, and on various aspects of medical practice and the work of hospitals. Whilst education based features are less popular than the police/medical productions, they are nonetheless a staple of television. Teachers and learners often appear as characters in soap operas.
UK viewers will be familiar with Ken Barlow’s teaching years in the long running /Coronation Street/ and the ascent to teaching of former ‘smackhead’ Jimmy Corkhill in Channel 4’s /Brookside/. In addition to this, there have been a number of ‘one-off’ reality based TV dramas of note, recent examples being /Ahead of the Class/ (first broadcast by ITV in February 2005) and /The Thieving Headmistress/ (BBC2 June 2006) and fictional dramas, for example, /A Class Apart/ (BBC 1 March 2007). In August 2006, Channel 4 screened the moving television documentary /Secret Life of the Classroom/ showing the travails of children new to school. The same channel has hosted a successful ‘reality TV’ series /That’ll Teach ‘Em/, (first shown in 2003), which exposes groups of modern teenagers to the discipline and rigours of the educational experience in the manner of a 1950s grammar school and /How the Other Half Learns /(April 2007) which featured an exchange between state school and private school pupils.

Novels

Novels, Education in Popular Culture

Many novels have some aspect of education as a theme or have a narrative that features teachers/learners or educational institutions in some significant way. To include ‘literature’ in thinking about ‘popular culture’, however, may seem inappropriate. This list appears here primarily because of the ubiquity of the paperback novel, and the fact that not all novels meet the criteria of ‘high culture’. There is also a sense in which literature, however defined, can both reflect and inform popular culture.
There is a very large genre of school based literature that is aimed specifically at children, well known examples include Enid Blyton’s /St. Clare’s/ and /Malory Towers/ series, Richmal Crompton’s /Just William/ stories and Anthony Buckeridge’s ‘Jennings’ series (set in a prep school). The Harry Potter phenomenon, (authored by J K Rowlings), presents a recent example of the commercial power and the pull of this type of literature on the collective imagination both in the UK and internationally. Paradoxically (perhaps), no attempt to list ‘children’s’ literature’ has been made here. This is partly owing to the vast number (and variable quality) of publications that fall into this category. The ‘campus novel’ is discussed in Showalter E (2005) /Faculty Towers: the Academic Novel and its Discontents/. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Any of the following may be of interest to those seeking light, and in some cases not so light reading, that has some bearing on education and/or schooling. Please note that the date shown in square brackets [e.g. 1934] is the date of original publication (so far as it has been possible to establish it) rather than the date of a current edition.

Poetry Collection

Poetry Collections, Education in Popular Culture

The comments above regarding the novel and its high culture/popular culture status apply equally in relation to poetry. Certainly the work of Betjeman may be thought of as relatively ‘mainstream’, having being popularised through television and found its way onto a number of ‘pop records’. There are a great many poems that relate in some way to aspects of education and/or schooling – too many to list. Below are some collections of poems in which these themes are particularly prominent. We would welcome suggestions for inclusion in future editions of this very incipient list.
Alhberg A [1983] - /Please Mrs Butler/
Betjeman J [1960] - /Summoned By Bells/
Cook S [1971] - /Form Photograph/
Cook S [1976] - /Staff Photograph/
Duffy C A [1994] - /Selected Poems

Films vy Fisher, Harvis, Jarvis

Compiled by Dr Roy Fisher, Dr Ann Harris and Dr Christine Jarvis

School of Education and Professional Development
University of Huddersfield, UK

Education in Popular Culture
Films

Educational institutions, teachers, and learners have featured strongly in the cinema. Films ranging from high farce comedy (The Belles of St. Trinian’s) to sentimental portraits of a teacher (Goodbye, Mr Chips and Mr Holland’s Opus) can tell us something about the way in which society represents teachers, learners and the educational process.
The list below, although not comprehensive, features mainly UK, US, Australasian, and Canadian made films with the addition of a few others that have become well known in the English speaking world. The films are listed in alphabetical order except that the definite article has been ignored when it is the first word in a title. In compiling this section we have relied heavily on Halliwell’s Film Guide, The Radio Times Guide to Films, and The Time Out Film Guide, and We acknowledge Our debt to all three of these publications as well as to many internet sites.

Cultural comparison

Project Muse

Bulman convincingly demonstrates that high school films are not about schooling, rather they are social settings where identity issues, rite of passage and the grand drama of adolescence is played out. Would it then not have been better to reframe the study to address these broader themes? A reframing together with a discussion of the translatability of the high school genre to non-American films would have better suited the comparative dimension of the study and the
inclusion of 41 foreign films, not all of which relate to high school we learn as few foreign films were to be found that could be categorized as ‘high school films.’ The question then arises if the high school film is an American genre, does it lend itself to cross-cultural comparison?

Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky

Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Set in contemporary London, the film focuses on the character of Pauline Cross, who goes by the nickname, "Poppy". Poppy is an irrepressibly cheerful, Pollyanna-type primary school teacher, thirty years old, single, and infinitely optimistic and accepting. She shares a flat with her best friend Zoe in Finsbury Park. The film presents various situations that test Poppy's inherent optimism.

Clips school films

Film studies: Watch clips from classic school films (H-Z)
Check out the Great School Movies shortlist of 40 before voting for your favourite for Teachers TV

Campus Novel subgenre mystery

School and university in literature campus novel

A campus novel, also known as an academic novel, is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s. The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, published in 1952, is often quoted as the earliest example, although in Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents, Elaine Showalter discusses C.P. Snow's The Masters, of the previous year, and several earlier novels have an academic setting.

Many well-known campus novels, such as Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim and those of David Lodge, are comic or satirical, often counterpointing intellectual pretensions and human weaknesses. Some, however, attempt a serious treatment of university life; examples include C.P. Snow's The Masters, J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace and Philip Roth's The Human Stain. Novels such as Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited that focus on students rather than faculty are often considered to belong to a distinct genre, sometimes termed varsity novels.

A subgenre is the campus murder mystery, where the closed university setting substitutes for the country house of Golden Age detective novels; examples include Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night, Carolyn Gold Heilbrun's Kate Fansler mysteries and Colin Dexter's The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn.

Keith Gessen - All the Sad Young Literary Men

Keith Gessen, All the Sad Young Literary Men. Penguin.

In /All The Sad Young Literary Men/ Gessen charts the lives of Mark, Keith, and Sam as they over-process their college days, under-process relationships past and present, and pathetically as well as triumphantly struggle their way through a web of women who love them and loathe them, in search for a sense of maturity, responsibility and literary (or other) fame.

Newly divorced and heartbroken in his university town of Syracuse, Mark attempts to center his life around his graduate work on the Russian Revolution and ends up being seduced by internet dating and online porn. Sam’s on a mission to write “the first great Zionist epic” even though he couldn’t say a Hebrew word if you paid him, hasn’t yet made it to Israel, and is not a practicing Jew. Obsessive self-Googler and avid dater after a string of failed relationships, Sam learns what it feels like to be just another name on a list of sexual encounters. And then there’s more serious and sensitive Keith who is thwarted by inherited notions of resilience and greatness, by memories of his broken family, and muddles his way into the arms of the selfless woman he meets in Brooklyn.

All the Sad Young Literary Men - Keith Gessen: an overview of the reviews and critical reactions

"Still, there is something weirdly fetching about /All the Sad Young Literary Men/ -- weird because the book describes such a tiny, occasionally infuriating world, one where progressive magazines and book reviews might save the world and crossing paths with the vice president’s daughter is just a part of a Harvard education. It is a world of less-than-practical professions. And yet there is something affecting about the impossibly great aspirations shared by Mr. Gessen’s trio, especially as it shields them from thinking too deeply about the cowardly deeds that pock their day-to-day lives." - Hua Hsu, The New York Sun

Professor Movies

MySpace.com Blogs - Nog Thinks About "Professor Movies!" - Richard MySpace Blog

I was watching /Smart People/ recently, I thought about how many films lately have dealt with professors (usually English professors). There's /The Squid and The Whale/ (excellent), /The Savages/ (very good), /The Visitor/ (very good), /Elegy/ (not playing in Larryville anytime soon but supposedly very good), and /Smart People/ (fair). None of these films seem to exist primarily to explore or satirize the academic environment in a way similar to what's often called "the campus novel," (although I suppose /Wonder Boys/, not as recent, sort of fits that particular mold). Rather, they either deal with the idea of a professor who's become disaffected and disengaged and must learn to "re-connect" (/Visitor/; /Smart People/) or they show how the mindset of academia can impacts one's relationships (/Squid/; /Savages/). With the exception of /Smart People/, which played to empty multiplexes, these films largely reside in the arthouses, which I suppose are frequented by a large number of academics (who perhaps see themselves reflected in the films, not usually in pleasant ways: none of them follow the formula of "inspirational teacher" flicks). At best, they capture a certain hollowness that can exist in academia. Watch Jeff Daniels in /Squid/ expounding on the 'canon' at the dinner table, probably reciting the same lines he's used hundreds of times before, which are then picked up by his teenage son and recycled in his own classes (without his having read the works at all). Even /Smart People/, the weakest link of the ones I've seen, is occasionally pretty perceptive: there's a great bit where Dennis Quaid meets with his editors, who have imposed a very combative tone on Quaid's new book as a way of getting it to sell—if you can't please them, piss them off. His book is titled: "You Can't Read." And judging from the number of books one sees on shelves right now with names like "How To Read Like a Professor," people enjoy being told they don't know how to read and instructed in how /to/ read! English professors, our time has come: we're movie stars!

Herman Koch - Mijn leraar Nederlands

Herman Koch, De Lerarenkamer. Meulenhof. 2009.
Schrijver online.

Wanneer de jonge Kranich benoemd wordt tot docent op een gerenommeerd gymnasium in Göppingen, maakt rector Höllinger hem direct duidelijk op welke vier pijlers zijn schoolsysteem gebaseerd is: angst, ellende, valse schijn en leugens. Door middel van een rigide doorgevoerd verdeel- en heerssysteem probeert Höllinger zijn medewerkers naar een ondoorgrondelijk ideaal te vormen. Leerlingen zijn bijzaak, alles draait om het sturen en manipuleren van de leraren. Kranich wordt ingezet als spion binnen de school en raakt verstrikt in interne complotten en ondergronds verzet. Hoe kan hij uit dit wonderlijk moeras van intriges, mysterieuze koffertjes en geheime samenkomsten ontsnappen?

Markus Orths - De lerarenkamer

Markus Orths, De lerarenkamer
Podium, 2004
Goethe-Institut Übersetzen als Kulturaustausch

Korte roman over een beginnende leraar aan een Duitse middelbare school. Vanaf het begin wordt hem duidelijk gemaakt, dat de school een soort jungle is, waarin overleven moeilijk en een vaste aanstelling verkrijgen bijna onmogelijk is. De rector probeert de absolute macht te handhaven, het personeel dient slechts om controle over iedereen te houden. Zo bloeit een klimaat op, waarin manipulatie, achterdocht en frustratie de boventoon voeren. Ontsnappen uit deze demoralisatie kan maar op een manier; totaal verzet of ontslag nemen. Uiterst vermakelijke, hilarische roman met absurdistische trekjes, waarin cliche, realiteit en fantasie handig zijn gecombineerd. Levert een avond onbekommerd plezier op voor buitenstaander en (gestresste) leraar. Volgens de flaptekst zijn in de Duitse versie al meer dan 30.000 exemplaren verkocht en is een verfilming in voorbereiding. Paperback; normale druk.