Review of “Teached” by David J.

Link to “Teached” website

In the Teached series, three pressing issues in education are covered in three short documentary-style short movies. “The Path to Prison” documents a young mans story about how he felt he was failed by the education system, by moving up even without being able to read at grade level. “The Blame Game” focuses on the issue of teacher quality, and the current system in place to hire and evaluate teachers. “Uncharted Territory” focuses on the charter school movement, and the role they play in education reform.

            In Path to Prison, former gang member Jerone shares his experience in the Los Angeles school system. He speaks to his memoirs of teachers who made a difference in his life, as well as those teachers who he did not make a connection for various reasons. In this short film, Jerone explains the reasoning behind his decisions, which ultimately led to his path to prison. The short film quotes number about the disproportionate amount of minorities in the prison system, along with illiteracy. Jerone speaks to getting lost in the shuffle while growing up in the Los Angeles school system.

The Blame Game tries to tackle a multi-faceted question: who or what is to blame for low achieving students? This short film tackles issues of teacher quality and its relationship to the achievement gap, and parents’ role in academic achievement. The short film does not include any narration; it is paced by interviews from the perspective of teachers, administrators, and program directors. A majority of the film hovers around the issue of teacher quality and the protection that exists around teachers who are not qualified (author Mike Schmoker refers to as the “buffer”).

In the last short film of the trilogy, Uncharted Territory, public charter schools are addressed. Again, there is not a narrator. The short film is paced by interviews from teachers, administrators, Steve Barr (the founder of Red Dot charter schools) and Irasema Salcido (founder of Cesar Chavez charter schools). Most of the commentary comes from the perspective of a successful charter school, and mostly leaves out what a failing public charter school looks like.

To sum up, this trilogy of short films covers three pressing issues: the repercussions of schools and teachers holding low expectations, the need for teacher evaluation reform, and the role of public charter schools. I hoped the movie would dive deeper into the issues, however the film left little to no room for rebuttal due to it’s condensed format. This documentary was largely to shed light for those who may not follow education issues closely. The documentary is short and to the point, which for this assignment is not conducive, but raises enough awareness for the casual viewer to ask questions, which I believe is the intent of the piece.

In Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Opressed, he writes about students in the classroom being receptacles and the teachers responsible for filling them. The students are merely receptacles in a chair, and the students do not interact with the content or the teacher. Friere’s account of the oppressed education experience has a lot of parallels with Jerone’s account. Friere uses words such as docile and dehumanizing when it comes to the oppressed side of the coin. As for Jerone, not only was he oppressed physically, but also oppressed mentally. Jerone speaks about his teachers coming into class hungover and turning on a movie, essentially ignoring the students. He also speaks about being passed on from grade to grade, without any help or support with his inability to read. Reading between the lines of Friere’s Opresssion and Jerone’s account of his experience lays expectation. Lower expectation for students may not lead to prison, that is an extreme case, but it does lead to poor teaching practice.

While the last two segments of this documentary were mostly surface information and did not dive into the issues of teacher evaluation and charter schools, it serves as a good conversation starter. I found parallels with Sarah Carr’s Hope Against Hope, where both issues were being tackled in Carr’s account of rebuilding New Orleans’ public education system post hurricane Katrina. I believe Carr would have had the same comment about Teached: Uncharted Territory’s lack of perspective. In Hope Against Hope Carr paints a picture of charter schools, but portrays both the good and bad. As for teacher evaluation, it seems New Orleans

Public schools made the decision to hire Teach for America teachers, and firing teachers who are more experienced. The Blame Game speaks to teacher evaluation and tenure, and I would be interested to hear the teachers speaking against tenure and their reaction to NOLA’s drastic move. In NOLA School District, Act 54 was passed recently, which allows student growth to account for 50% of the final rating for a teacher evaluation. The hiring of teachers like Aidan, in Carr’s Hope, is common practice in New Orleans School District. I appreciate The Blame Game’s information, but I do not believe it dug its’ heels in and spoke about the solutions of the issue.