Beyond the Blackboard: Review

The movie follows Stacey Bess, a young 24 year old mother of 2, newly

graduated teacher who lands her first teaching assignment at “The School With

No Name”, which is located in a homeless shelter in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The classroom lacked the basic school supplies for Stacey to teach such as

proper desks and chairs. Her students are the children of the homeless

residents of the shelter. They range in age from 6 to 12 years old.

Throughout the movie you are able to see how hard it was for Stacey to get

the most basic materials for her classroom. Everytime she went to the school

district office the representative would always tell her that “her request will be

submitted.” When she asked if he had ever been to visit The School With No

Name he said “No, he hasn’t and had no plans to visit” because as he told her

she was just a “stop gap” or temporary fix until they decided what they were

going to do with the school. It made me wonder how could the representative

expect Stacey to teach her class if he’s never been there to see first hand what

they lacked and if he was already in the mindset that the school would be closed

anyway?

Watching the movie I realized that even back in 1987 the teachers were no

different. Those who didn’t want to be bothered teaching just found ways to

pacify the students until the end of the day. Then there were those like Stacey

who were “called” to teach, who sacrificed their time and energy to make sure

their students had the necessary tools to succeed in school. Her love and

determination to be a good teacher is what took her above and beyond the

realm of what teaching is about.

When Stacey first came to the class she saw that the previous teacher had

written “shame names” on the board for those students who didn’t behave in

class. When they became unruly the previous teacher would pop a movie in

the dvd player for the class to watch and keep them occupied. Needless to

say no teaching was being done that day! Stacey quickly erased the names from

the board and sat down with the students and set the rules for the classroom of

what was and was not expected of them. The students realized she wasn’t a

pushover like the last teacher when a rat appeared from the floorboard. Instead

of yelling and screaming and jumping around like the previous teacher, Stacey

just took a piece of cardboard and guided the rat out the door. The students

were amazed she wasn’t scared!!

There were various ways Stacey would teach her class to make learning fun.

One of her ideas was to encourage the students to think of words to describe

their feelings everyday. She had one of the residents, who was an artist, paint a

tree on the wall. Whenever the students would tell her a word that described

how they felt she would write it on paper in the shape of leaves. She would

give the word to the student to put on the tree. Pretty soon the tree was full of

“leaves.” By doing this it helped the students to express themselves better.

When one of the students asked her why they needed to know these words and

the other things she was teaching them she said “if you know it, It’s yours”,

meaning once you learn something no one can take it from you.

She also discussed respect with the class. She asked them to share their

experiences of when they thought they were not being respected, whether from a

parent, or another person. She explained to them the importance of giving and

receiving respect.

A teacher has to make that “connection” with his or her students in order to

succeed, to let them know “I got your back”, “when everyone else has failed

I will still be there for you”. Stacey let them know she was there for them by not

giving up on them when they had problems that could have prevented

them from continuing school.

By the end of the movie Stacey learned to appreciate all she had. Her

students didn’t have a lot to give but despite their circumstances some of them

gave Stacey their prized possessions. It was at this point that Stacey felt she

had won them over.

Stacey had made a comment in the movie saying “many of the people in

this shelter are waiting for Superman to come, but there’s no Superman

coming.” Thinking about that made me realize that to some degree the school

system has not changed that much since 1978 when Stacey first taught. There

are no Supermans coming. We, the present and future teachers, are the

Supermans of the school system. We are the ones our children secretly entrust

with their education, well being, and sanity. We are the ones to be their voices

when they cannot explain themselves, the ones who devote our time and energy

away from our own families to make sure our students are reading at or above

grade level, can compute the simplest of math equations and can use simple

words in a sentence.

Stacey Bess was their Superman. She made learning possible for her

students. Through her efforts she accomplished what no other teacher at that

shelter had done…she reached a child.

The message of the movie:

1. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Things you may do

With your students might seem unorthodox but these days unorthodox

Is the new “norm.” Teaching is all about being creative..the more

Creative you are in the classroom the more your students will want to

Explore their creativity and learn to think “outside the box.”

2. It doesn’t take a lot to make a huge difference in a child’s life…some attention…some focus…and a lot of patience goes a long way…