The Hero Teacher/White Savior

In many pieces of popular texts today, especially movies, urban teachers are portrayed as the "Hero Teacher" or "White Savior". Although some of these stories may hold some truth, these mainstream movies are setting up future educators for a very shocking realization, that there is no such thing as the "Hero Teacher" and we are not going to "save" every single kid that walks through our door, many of those kids won't even need our "saving" to begin with. At least not in the sense that these movies portray. Gregory Michie wrote a chapter in his book, We Don't Need Another Hero, where he comes up with a game called "Count the Stereotypes". From graffiti filled walls to violence in the most extreme sense, these movies are filled with the stereotypes that I discussed in another post. I also feel that these movies and similar texts feed into the belief in America that, unless all of your students went to college and became published writers, you are a bad teacher (which goes off into a whole other spiel). These movies fail to show the fact that, just because a student did not go to college, does not mean that the student or the teacher failed by any means.

However, these movies do give some good ideas and starting points for teachers in urban schools. They emphasize the importance of making the curriculum interesting and meaningful to the students. They also emphasize the fact that classroom environments need to be safe for students to succeed. In urban schools, teachers will face issues involving race, equity, and justice. Although mainstream movies may over exemplify this, it is something that teachers, especially urban teachers, must be ready to face. Also, in reality, some students will have stories very similar to those portrayed in mainstream movies (see my post on Students' Personal Struggles) and these movies may give some good ideas on how, as an educator, you can try to help these students.

I do admit, I used to consider these movies my absolute favorite, and I do still enjoy watching them. They provide a sense of inspiration to me as a future educator, but it is an inspiration that must be taken in moderation. It is important, especially for future educators, to learn how to critically view mainstream movies that have the "Hero Teacher" theme. Be aware of the stereotypes involved and the reality of the situations being portrayed. Don't fall into the belief that as an urban educator, all of your students are going to need "saving' and you will be that miraculous hero that saves them all.