Down the Up Staircase

This is another little bit of a catch-up post - I went to see Waiting for Superman a couple of weeks ago, despairing of the U.S. education system. Unqualified, disinterested teachers are kept in the system, while interested students are ignored, abandoned.

What can we do to make education interesting to teachers, accessible to students?

I hate to give credit to Arianna Huffington for much of anything, but many years ago in The Futurist magazine we gave her credit for authoring a singular formula for success: Celebritizing.

This evening I had a yen to watch one of my favorite movies on DVD, Quiz Show. The story involves the corruption of a young, ambitious intellectual, Charlie van Doren, by the glory of fame and fortune. Television just wanted to sell Geritol, but was attempting to do so at a time of a national U.S. crisis in the education system.

The movie opens with the Sputnik crisis of 1957: The Soviet Union was beating the United States into space, and to remedy the situation, America needed a boost to math and science specifically, and Education generally. The role of television as a "national classroom" was driven home time and again in the mind of van Doren - he could serve as a glamorous role model to the nation's youth, generating excitement in learning and general knowledge.

It was the right idea, but with the wrong motivations.

It is a factor of my years, my distance from the real-world education system, that forces me to refer to cultural artifacts like this. My first memory of educational role models were the Sandy Dennis film, Up the Down Staircase, and the Sidney Poitier film To Sir, with Love. Of course, there is no dearth of films and television series featuring inspiring teachers, ranging from Goodbye, Mr. Chips (take your pick, Robert Donat or Peter O'Toole) to Mr. Schue in Glee.

Teachers inspire us; education is dramatic. Why don't we see more of it on TV now? I could envision something on prime-time TV that honors learning and knowledge, but without the numbing superficiality of quiz shows. A professor or teacher who inspires with ideas and connections to real-world problems. I'd watch that show. I'd want to be like that teacher.

I don't necessarily think this is a panacea, but to get young people interested in learning and in teaching. it couldn't hurt to give them more of those role models once again.

But it still seems it's the Geritol sellers of the world in charge of the image-distribution system.

Anyway, there you have it. How to inspire: Celebritize. Not far off from "celebrate." I remain optimistic.

love, hosaa
tripping down an Up staircase

ETA: So I guess there is a celebrity teacher out there now: Tony Danza on A&E's Teach. Watching now...

ETAA: I liked it. It's more about Tony Danza's self-discoveries (at least in the episode I watched last night), but I think this could be good.



The other idea I had was for a behind the scenes look at how a show like "Jeopardy" gets put together. What kind of conversations go into the dumbing down of information, how do they come up with the clues that allow people to answer questions they don't really know? In Quiz Show, they got it right - people just want to follow the money. You don't have to cheat to win, you just have to have easier questions.