By TED Staff
October 2021
Teaching is one of the most inspiring jobs in a community, so it’s no wonder teachers, principals, and schools make so many appearances in popular movies. Whether you work in a school yourself, are thinking about it, or just really like watching movies about education, we’ve come up with our ranking of the 30 best movies about teachers and teaching.
#1. Like Stars on Earth (Taare Zameen Par)
IMDb Rating: 8.4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 96%
Taare Zameen Par, or Like Stars on Earth as it’s known in English, tops our list of the best movies about teachers and teaching. The Hindi-language film centers on Ishaan Awasthi, an eight-year old who is often mistaken as a lazy troublemaker, but who is actually dyslexic and full of imagination. When a new art teacher takes the time to get to know Ishaan, the young boy’s school experience turns around completely.
#2. The Browning Version (1951)
IMDb Rating: 8.2
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 95%
The Browning Version is a 1951 British film starring Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent, and Nigel Patrick. The movie takes place during the last day of work for mostly-despised Latin teacher Andrew Crocker-Harris. When a student named Taplow brings him a small going-away gift, Mr. Crocker-Harris begins reflecting on his past and contemplating his future.
#3. Dead Poets Society
IMDb Rating: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 92%
This 1989 classic stars a slew of big names, including Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Dead Poets Society tells the story of John Keating, a maverick teacher who uses poetry to inspire the boys at a boarding school. Upon its release, the movie was awarded the Academy Award for Writing (Original Screenplay) and the BAFTA Award for Best Film.
#4. The Chorus
IMDb Rating: 7.9
Rotten Tomatoes Audeience Score: 92%
Called Les choristes in its native French, The Chorus is an inspiring film about a new teacher who finds himself teaching at a badly run boarding school for troubled boys. Through the music he teaches, the teacher finds he is able to positively affect the boys’ lives. At the 2005 César Awards — France’s version of The Academy Awards — Les Choristes was awarded Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Composer.
#5. Goodbye, Mr. Chips
IMDb Rating: 7.9
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 71%
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 classic starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson. Over the course of the film, Donat’s character, an older teacher and former boarding school headmaster, recalls his career and personal life over the decades. Donat won an Oscar for his performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
#6. Remember the Titans
IMDb Rating: 7.8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 93%
Remember the Titans is a 2000 film starring Denzel Washington, Donald Faison, Kate Bosworth, Hayden Panettiere, and a number of other famous names. The Walt Disney movie tells the true story of Coach Herman Boone as he begins a new tenure as the Black coach of a newly racially integrated high school football team.
#7. To Be and to Have
IMDb Rating: 7.8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 91%
The only documentary to make our list, To Be and to Have (original title: Être et avoir) follows a one-room schoolhouse in rural France. The students, who range in age from age 4 to 11, are all educated by one extremely dedicated teacher. This sweet and inspiring film was very well received upon its release. In addition to its nomination for Best Film and Best Director, To Be and to Have was nominated for Best Film not in the English Language at Britain’s BAFTA Awards.
#8. October Sky
IMDb Rating: 7.8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 88%
October Sky tells the true story of Homer Hickam, the teenage son of a coal miner, who is inspired to learn rocketry after watching the first Sputnik launch. He is guided along the way by his brilliant teacher, Miss Riley. October Sky has quite a cast of stars, including Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer and Laura Dern as Miss Riley.
#9. Not One Less
IMDb Rating: 7.7
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 90%
Not One Less is a 1999 drama set in a remote mountain village in the People’s Republic of China. When the village teacher is forced to leave for a month, he tasks a 13-year old girl to substitute and gives her a unique challenge: if all of the students are there when the teacher returns, he will give the young girl 10 extra yuan. The girl and her pupils are forced to work together when the class troublemaker sets off for the big city.
#10. To Sir With Love
IMDb Rating: 7.7
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 88%
To Sir With Love is a 1967 film starring Sidney Poitier and Judy Geeson. The classic film centers on an idealistic young teacher called Mark Thackeray who finds himself teaching a bunch of rowdy white students from the slums of London’s East End. In recognition of his film, director James Clavell was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America.
#11. Freedom Writers
IMDb Rating: 7.6
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 87%
Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, and Imelda Staunton star in this popular movie about a young teacher who takes a position at a high school full of at-risk students. Over the course of the film, she helps them to learn about tolerance, commit to applying themselves, and pursue education beyond high school. Freedom Writers won the Humanitas Prize in the Feature Film Category in 2007.
#12. (tie) The Ron Clark Story
IMDb Rating: 7.6
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 85%
The Ron Clark Story is a made-for-television movie that tells the real-life story of Ron Clark, a small-town teacher who relocates to one of the country’s most challenging schools and classrooms. The film stars Matthew Perry as the titular character. The Ron Clark Story was very well received upon its release, and was nominated for awards at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, and more. At the Primetime Emmy Awards, Perry was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor.
#12. (tie) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
IMDb Rating: 7.6
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 85%
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 film starring the legendary Maggie Smith. In the movie, Smith portrays a Scottish schoolteacher whose “extravagantly romantic” ideas about love and life get her into trouble with her school’s conservative headmistress. At the 1970 Academy Awards, Smith was awarded the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
#14. The Great Debaters
IMDb Rating: 7.5
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 86%
The Great Debaters tells the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, who in 1935 inspires his students at Texas’s Wiley College to form the school’s first debate team. The team goes on to challenge Harvard. Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker star in The Great Debaters, which was awarded Best Picture at the 2007 African-American Film Critics Association.
#15. McFarland USA
IMDb Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 88%
In McFarland USA, Kevin Costner stars as a recently fired football coach who moves his family to a small farming town in California. Once there, he helps a group of dispirited students become one of the region’s best cross-country running teams. Maria Bello also stars.
#16. Lean On Me
IMDb Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 85%
Lean On Me is a 1989 movie about an intensely dedicated educator named Joe Clark, who is appointed as principal at a rundown inner-city school. Lean On Me stars Morgan Freeman as Principal Clark, plus Beverly Todd, Lynn Thigpen, and Michael Beach. Both Todd and Freeman were awarded Image Awards for their performances.
#17. Akeelah and the Bee
IMDb Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 81%
Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, and Keke Palmer all star in Akeelah and the Bee. This popular family film tells the story of a young girl from south Los Angeles who tries to spell her way to the National Spelling Bee. All three leads took home acting awards for their performances, including Image Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Black Reel Awards, and BET Awards, to name but a few.
#18. Blackboard Jungle
IMDb Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 78%
Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 movie about Richard Dadier, an English teacher who is determined to keep his job at the violent inner-city school at which he has just begun teaching — despite the best efforts of both students and other faculty. Blackboard Jungle stars Glenn Ford as Dadier and Anne Francis as his wife, Anne.
#19. Up the Down Staircase
IMDb Rating: 7.4
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 67%
Up the Down Staircase follows the experiences of a young English teacher in an inner-city high school in New York City. The 1967 film stars Sandy Dennis as the young teacher, plus Patrick Bedford, Jean Stapleton, and Sorrell Booke. The movie is based on the novel written by Bel Kaufman.
#20. Coach Carter
IMDb Rating: 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 85%
Coach Carter is an inspiring film about a high school basketball coach, Ken Carter, who makes major waves of controversy when he benches his entire team for breaking their academic contract. Samuel L. Jackson stars as Coach Carter. Channing Tatum, Ashanti, and Octavia Spencer also star in the film, which won Best Sports Movie at the 2005 ESPY Awards.
#21. Mr. Holland’s Opus
IMDb Rating: 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 84%
Mr. Holland’s Opus is the 1995 classic about a frustrated composer who decides to leave the big leagues in order to teach high school music. There, he finds a level of fulfillment he never thought possible. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss as Mr. Holland, plus Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy, and Terrence Howard, among other talents. Though he didn’t win, Dreyfuss was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 1996 Academy Awards.
#22. Precious
IMDb Rating: 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 81%
Based on the novel by Sapphire, Precious tells the story of an overweight, abused, and illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child. When she enrolls in an alternative school, a teacher named Miss Blu Rain helps the girl see that she could have a future. Precious earned more than 110 award nominations from shows around the world. These include six Academy Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year.
#23. (tie) Stand and Deliver
IMDb Rating: 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 79%
Stand and Deliver is a 1988 film about high school teacher Jaime Escalante, who manages to inspire his class of dropout-prone students to learn calculus. The movie stars Edward James Olmos as Mr. Escalante, plus Estelle Harris and Mark Phelan. Stand and Deliver is based on a true story.
#23. (tie) Finding Forrester
IMDb Rating: 7.3
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 79%
In Finding Forrester, actor Rob Brown plays a young writing prodigy who manages to find a mentor in a reclusive author played by Sean Connery. The film also stars Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes, and F. Murray Abraham. Finding Forrester was very well received on the film festival circuit, and Rob Brown was awarded a Black Reel Award for his Best Supporting Actor role.
#25. Half Nelson
IMDb Rating: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 82%
Half Nelson stars Ryan Gosling as an inner-city middle school teacher with a drug habit. When a student figures out his secret, the two form an unlikely friendship. Anthony Mackie and Shareeka Epps also star. Gosling was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role at the 2007 Academy Awards. The film itself was awarded Movie of the Year at the AFI Awards.
#26. Educating Rita
IMDb Rating: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 81%
Educating Rita is a 1983 film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. Caine portrays an alcoholic professor named Dr. Frank Bryant, who is hired as a tutor by a working class girl. Educating Rita was nominated for three Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best [Adapted] Screenplay.
#27. Election
IMDb Rating: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 79%
This dark comedy has become a classic since it was released in 1999. Election stars Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick as a overzealous student politician and a disillusioned high school teacher, respectively. The Alexander Payne-directed comedy also stars Chris Klein and Jessica Campbell as Witherspoon’s fellow nominees. Election’s screenwriters were nominated for an Academy Award in their category.
#28. The Miracle Worker
IMDb Rating: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 78%
This Walt Disney miniseries from 2000 stars Alison Elliott as Annie Sullivan, the young teacher who is tasked with teaching Helen Keller (played by Hallie Eisenberg) and drawing the little girl out of her world “of darkness, blindness, deafness, and silence.” The Miracle Worker was named by the Family Television Awards as the best movie/miniseries/special of the year.
#29. The Paper Chase
IMDb Rating: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 72%
The Paper Chase is the 1973 film that tells the story of a first-year Harvard Law School student named James T. Hart. Over the course of the film, James struggles to balance both his coursework and his relationship with the daughter of his most stern professor. One of the film’s co-stars, John Houseman, won a number of awards for his role, including the 1974 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
#30. School of Rock
IMDb Rating:
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 64%
Before it was a hit Broadway show, it was a hit movie starring Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman, and Miranda Cosgrove, to name but a few. School of Rock is the hilarious story of Dewey Finn, who becomes a substitute teacher at a pretentious prep school after he is forced out of his rock group. But instead of teaching his students the proper curriculum, he attempts to turn them into a band.
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