My wife and I, retired, both love to watch this new TV series. While we don't agree with everything it stands for, we both agree that it is both entertaining and thought-provoking, something you rarely see on TV.
I read a "Boston Public" review by a teacher who says the show "is an insult to teachers." What an insecure teacher! Such comments show a complete lack of imagination. People don't really think TV shows on FOX are intended to be factual reporting, do they? Ever watch the old Mission Impossible TV series? Some viewers would be upset that the "team" always succeeded. That isn't real life. Duh!! I would just explain, with a large grin, "They only show us the episodes where the team succeeded. They don't show us the ones where everyone gets blown up!" People without imagination didn't understand that comment either.
To me, Boston Public is much that way. If you want to impose some reality, they don't show all the boring days, or the lesson planning, or the ordinary kids eating lunch. What they do show are the exceptional, interesting, thought-provoking, though fictionalized, "episodes" of high school life. A teacher should not be insulted by this TV show, anymore than doctors should be insulted by "Hannibal" or police officers insulted by "Lethal Weapon". If teachers are, then it doesn't show much imagination on their part. "Teaching" is much more than subject competence - it is also about dealing with ambiguous real-world situations. If Boston Public makes people think, then it is not only good entertainment, it also becomes a public service.
Last night we just watched the episode where two teachers had been fired, the second for having concealed his knowledge of a teacher/student sexual affair, even lying when asked point blank. They went to court. In the school's final summation, the principal explained that teachers need to be trusted. All the other teachers, with all their flaws, still can be trusted. The fired teacher cannot. The judge comments later that in weighing his decision, his 17-yr-old daughter visited him, and at that point he realized that if it had been his daughter, and a teacher concealed knowledge of such an affair, such teacher would be terribly negligent, and he thus ruled for the school, upholding the firing.
Who can argue that this is an insult to teachers and the teaching profession? "Boston Public" will tire and burn out some day, maybe even this year, but right now it is one fine TV show.
I read a "Boston Public" review by a teacher who says the show "is an insult to teachers." What an insecure teacher! Such comments show a complete lack of imagination. People don't really think TV shows on FOX are intended to be factual reporting, do they? Ever watch the old Mission Impossible TV series? Some viewers would be upset that the "team" always succeeded. That isn't real life. Duh!! I would just explain, with a large grin, "They only show us the episodes where the team succeeded. They don't show us the ones where everyone gets blown up!" People without imagination didn't understand that comment either.
To me, Boston Public is much that way. If you want to impose some reality, they don't show all the boring days, or the lesson planning, or the ordinary kids eating lunch. What they do show are the exceptional, interesting, thought-provoking, though fictionalized, "episodes" of high school life. A teacher should not be insulted by this TV show, anymore than doctors should be insulted by "Hannibal" or police officers insulted by "Lethal Weapon". If teachers are, then it doesn't show much imagination on their part. "Teaching" is much more than subject competence - it is also about dealing with ambiguous real-world situations. If Boston Public makes people think, then it is not only good entertainment, it also becomes a public service.
Last night we just watched the episode where two teachers had been fired, the second for having concealed his knowledge of a teacher/student sexual affair, even lying when asked point blank. They went to court. In the school's final summation, the principal explained that teachers need to be trusted. All the other teachers, with all their flaws, still can be trusted. The fired teacher cannot. The judge comments later that in weighing his decision, his 17-yr-old daughter visited him, and at that point he realized that if it had been his daughter, and a teacher concealed knowledge of such an affair, such teacher would be terribly negligent, and he thus ruled for the school, upholding the firing.
Who can argue that this is an insult to teachers and the teaching profession? "Boston Public" will tire and burn out some day, maybe even this year, but right now it is one fine TV show.