Stephen Singer has made a surprising observation: Public school students are being erased from TV, Movies, and Other Media. Why?

You will find his answer here.

Categories Media

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GregB says:

January 10, 2019 at 1:12 pm

Very astute observation by Steven. I had forgotten about a project I was working on more than 20 years ago when a production company contacted me about doing a civic education-themed televisions pilot that never got off the ground. Rare disease groups also try to insert information about their issues in programs. The show Scrubs once featured an occasional character, played by Richard Kind, who was a hypochondriac none of the doctors took seriously. In his last appearance, he was diagnosed with the very rare hematological malignancy called Waldentrom’s macroglobulinemia. That episode raised more awareness of the disease than anything previous or since.

Steven’s observations fit hand-in-glove with the many posts and comments here about how reactionary forces are not focusing on the vast majority of public students in their policy priorities. Thanks for making us aware of this!

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- GregB says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 3:33 pm
  
  Sort of related. I’m reading a book that has stories about 25 leading researchers from around the world in the emerging clinical field of cancer immunotherapy and have been struck by how many of them cite being mentored and influenced by high school teachers, especially the New Yorkers.
  
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Goliath says:

January 10, 2019 at 1:15 pm

Wow what will the media think of next? The media has become the goliath of society having the power to will the masses. Unfortunately as the american public becomes more gullible the media becomes more powerful.

The demographics of the US are being tested by the big money corporations and do not forget that the media is also owned and operated by big money corporations. The Washington Post, NY Post, FOX and just about most other media groups are owned and operated by big money corporations with a billionaire behind the scene.

How to combat you say? Education and learning about how the media operates would be a giant step in the right direction.

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Charles says:

January 10, 2019 at 1:23 pm

Yesterday I saw a film, “Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary”. It is a love letter to public schools. I think it should be mandatory viewing for anyone interested in public education.

(There is also a terrific scene involving a 1942 ham radio station, that is a love letter to ham radio (one of my hobbies))

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FLERP! says:

January 10, 2019 at 1:42 pm

Interesting. I never considered the “Public High School Movie” or the “Public High School TV Show” as genres, but it seems right.

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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

January 10, 2019 at 2:06 pm

I think I’ve commented on this.

I’ve read novels where the children of characters go to publicly funded private sector corporate charter schools and that the family had to fight to get in and escape the public schools.

There is never any mention of the fraud or the fact that public schools outperform most of these charters.

There is never any mention of the harsh policies that bully children and torment teachers.

There is never any mention of charter school teachers paid thousands of dollars less with no benefits.

There is never any mention of the increased number of administrators and the fact that they are paid more than public school administrators.

I’ve also seen this pop up a time-or-two in TV shows.

The public schools have vanished and the flow of crap from cable and the networks only mentions charter schools in ways that makes them sound like magic where your child would learn even if they were in a coma from birth to age 18.

Imagine that scene, where the 18-year-old still in a coma since birth is pushed on stage in a wheel chair and the highly paid corporate administrator puts the HS degree on the lap of the strapped-in graduating student. They have to strap the teen in so they won’t fall out of the chair and embarrass the CEO and stock holders.

Then the crowd watching the HS graduation is instructed to stand and cheer, and they do it on cue like good little puppets. Because if they don’t, their children might be kicked out of the charter school and sent back to the nightmare public schools that perform better and treat the children like humans instead of slaves.

I’m convinced that the greedy, power hungry, autocrats and corporate reformers of public education hired a team of Nazis to create this nightmare of a propaganda campaign designed to program and fool as many people as possible.

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- ciedie aech says:
  
  January 11, 2019 at 12:03 pm
  
  Such devastatingly powerful words: “There is never any mention of….”
  
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SomeDAM Poet says:

January 10, 2019 at 2:22 pm

The 1% are the only ones who are important in our society (the movers and the shakers) so why should our movies and TV shows show anything else?

The 99% could disappear tomorrow and no one would even notice — except maybe Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but who cares what a couple of socialist crackpots think?

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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 2:31 pm
  
  Democratic party leaders would not even notice anything was up until the next election when they didn’t get a single vote.
  
  Even then, they would not notice the 99% had disappeared — just blame the lack of votes on Russian hacking.
  
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  - Linda says:
    
    January 10, 2019 at 5:28 pm
    
    One reason for that, Poet, is the influence of the Center for American Progress which is funded by Gates. CAP’s director is all in for Cory Booker and IMO opposed to the progressive politicians.
- NYC public school parent says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 8:52 pm
  
  Elizabeth Warren wouldn’t notice?
  
  Tammy Baldwin wouldn’t notice?
  
  Tim Kaine (who has fought for public schools and Virginia is STILL one of the last state’s left that hasn’t been overtaken by “reformers”) wouldn’t notice?
  
  But Bernie, who fought for Virginia to have an education reformer Governor instead of a pro-public school governor, is the only one who would notice, along with the (wonderful!) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
  
  The reason I like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so much is that she NEVER helps the right wing do their dirty work. Ocasio-Cortez would point out that the only people who refer to her as “socialist crackpots” are the people who adore Trump and she is a proud member of the Democratic party. She is very early in what I hope is a long career and is much smarter than many of her elders in understanding who the real enemies of progressives are (hint: it isn’t Nancy Pelosi) and not doing their dirty work for them.
  
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NYC public school parent says:

January 10, 2019 at 2:24 pm

Two of the best public school tv series from the old days:

Room 222

The White Shadow

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Tim says:

January 10, 2019 at 2:36 pm

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but public schools are in fact very well represented in popular network TV shows that feature kids or families: Young Sheldon, Fresh off the Boat, Modern Family, Riverdale, The Simpsons, The Goldbergs, Rosanne/The Conners, Single Parents, American Housewife . . . the only one I can think of that features a private school is Black-ish, where it is portrayed as a joke and complete waste of the family’s money.

In the absence of any actual examples or a study of historical trends, the headline of Singer’s blog piece should have read, “There Aren’t Public Schools in a Few Movies I’ve Cherrypicked to Make My Point.”

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 3:33 pm
  
  Well-said by a charter cheerleader!
  
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  - retiredbutmissthekids says:
    
    January 11, 2019 at 12:45 am
    
    Funny, I was just thinking of “The Goldbergs,” &, no, Adam & Barry (as did Erica) go to J.F.K. Academy, which has been identified, I believe, as a private school (don’t think there were charters in the ’80s?). & I’m thinking, in real life, that the Goldbergs didn’t go to
    private school (& the real Adam Goldberg has 2 brothers ^ no sister Erica).
- GregB says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 3:39 pm
  
  I think you could apply that last sentence to yourself. The only two you mention with which I am familiar, Modern Family and The Simpsons, use public education as props for comedy bits, certainly not as examples of educational excellence. And you left out Bob’s Burgers as well as Malcolm in the Middle reruns. Cherrypicking indeed! Steven’s examples and arguments are right on the mark.
  
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    January 10, 2019 at 3:53 pm
    
    I thought Tim made a good point. I went to the link Diane posted, and the writer said:
    
    “John Travolta and Olivia Newton John dreamed of those summer nights, but they went to Rydell High.
    
    Molly Ringwald and the rest of the Breakfast Club attended Saturday detention, but during the week they were in class at Shermer High.”
    
    It’s been a while since I saw either of those movies, but I certainly do not think the teachers or administrators were portrayed as anything but props for comedy bits. Stupid people who the teens could take advantage of.
    
    I’m going to go back and mention Room 222 again because even though I had a long way to go before high school when I watched it, I still remember how much I admired Mr. Dixon and Miss McIntyre, and even the grumpy principal seemed to have his heart in the right place. And the scatter-brained student teacher had heart and learned to be a good teacher, too.
- retired teacher says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 3:52 pm
  
  I happened to see a recent episode of Black-ish in which the oldest son in the family was expelled from his private school for a silly prank. As a result, he had to attend the public school to the chagrin of his parents. The parents pressured the private school to take their son back, and they do. However, Dre decides he would rather stay in the public school where there are more diverse, interesting students, and he feels free to “be himself.” The story line delivered a positive message about public schools.
  
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- PJL says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 9:25 pm
  
  FYI – The Goldbergs is set at fictional private school “William Penn Academy” which is based on the the school Goldberg attended William Penn Charter School. It’s a 336 year old Quaker school not an actual charter school. There is a spin-off starting soon which also is set at the same fictional private school.
  
  The Disney TV series over the past decade seem to mostly feature private schools from the best of my recollection. And as others have noted when public schools are portrayed the portrayals are pretty uniformly negative.
  
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  - retiredbutmissthekids says:
    
    January 11, 2019 at 1:02 am
    
    Oops! Already typed my riddled-with-errors comment before I read this–thanks, PJL.
    Having said that, though, well, if that WAS the school they actually went to (a private Quaker school), then that’s why Adam Goldberg is portraying it as per his childhood memories & not for a nefarious reason.
    BUT–what about the ridiculous shows “Teachers” &–thank G-d!–the short-lived “Bad Teacher?” (I must admit that I did like the movie , though, because it was more of a caricature, sarcastic & contained irony. I mean, that car wash scene? Ms. Squirrel chewing Cameron Diaz out about sleeping w/her boyfriend IN FRONT OF 7th GRADERS? {& not even one student laughed}.)
    These shows truly portray teachers–esp. women teachers–as idiotic & vain. GRRRR!!!!
Roy Turrentine says:

January 10, 2019 at 4:39 pm

Singer mentions the new Spider-Man movie. I too noticed that the issue of where the young Spider-Man to be was going to school was prominent in the realationshp he had with his father. It actually worked better for him to be going to a private school, because it alienated him from his father more, an important aspect of the development of his character, that of the one set apart.

I do not say this to make an argument for or against Singer’s thesis, only to suggest that the character’s placement in a private school could be used to emphasize the wedge that existed in his dysfunctional relationship with his authoritarian father.

One thing I would add in support of Singer is that I cannot recall a film depiction of a teacher that was based in realism. Usually schools and teachers are either villainous or heroic, depending on how the author wants to create plot action based on archetypes. I guess Welcome Back, Kotter got closer to reality than anything else.

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- carolmalaysia says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 8:39 pm
  
  I notice that often teachers are not dressed very well and usually don’t have stylish places to live. They are not people to admire if you are into being upper class.
  
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- GregB says:
  
  January 10, 2019 at 10:39 pm
  
  I was a teenager when Welcome Back, Kotter was on the air and had good memories. When I saw an episode a few years ago, my first thought was, “How did I ever think this was funny?” Truly a horrible show with no redeeming qualities. Give me old Match Game 73-76 reruns any day. The fashions alone are worth the nostalgia.
  
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Linda says:

January 11, 2019 at 8:35 am

The movie, Norma Rae, would not be made today.
The timing of scripts in which public schools were replaced with charter schools and, in which public schools were portrayed negatively, coincided with scripts that disparaged unions. I recall a startling episode of Good Wife which showed one-sided anti-union bias.

Frequency of scripted programming that has, as subject matter, the harmful means and impact caused by the rich, has probably lessened as well .

CBS News is headed by a former Fox executive. Presumably, the Murdoch takedown of democracy has as many tentacles as the Koch’s network.

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gailj2 says:

January 11, 2019 at 11:06 am

Would never have realized this without this post. Just like all the cigarettes in movies. All this orchestrated by money.

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patriciasplaceblog says:

January 11, 2019 at 12:03 pm

“Eighth Grade” is an example of a good film that defies this trend and attempts to portray kids realistically. Much of the film does not take place in school, but enough of it does to see that it is a public school.

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BA says:

January 11, 2019 at 5:00 pm

13 Reasons Why, A.P. Bio, Game Shakers, Riverdale — are they about private or charter schools? What about The Diary of a Wimpy Kid? What about America to Me, a docuseries shot in Chicago public school during a one-year period? Mr. Singer (not Schneider, check the title) is just trolling.

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