Tenure

Who Was Your Favorite Teacher?

I remember the first great teacher I ever had. Mrs. McDougal.

It was 8th grade, a new pimple was born on face approximately every ten minutes and my hair roughly resembled the poofy ears of a show poodle on Show Day. I was in desperate need of something to feel good about. When I handed in an assignment (to write a short story about a childhood memory) I expected a C. Those days it seemed like I could never do much better than average on anything. The next day Mrs. McDougal flipped on the overheard projector and I nearly choked on my gum. She was projecting my paper on the wall for the whole class to see and she had a myriad of reasons why it was a well-written story. I remember thinking, "Really? Cause writing that paper was easy...and fun." I had it. Something to feel good about.

Mrs. McDougal was a teacher who paid attention to the details and took teaching seriously and loved it. As a result, a pimply 13 year old girl found a life-time hobby she could feel good about.

Tenure is about Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) a great teacher. A professor in fact, who's up for tenure. Unfortuantley, at the University he works at being a great teacher just isn't enough. With a newly hired, female professor to add competition for the tenure spot, a crazy friend in constant pursuit of Big Foot and a Dad in a rest home I think this movie was supposed to be really funny. Instead it's just a slow and simple movie that is by no means hilarious. But I did find a little of myself in Prof. Thurber and smiled once or twice at some of the humor. If the ending hadn't been fairly good I would say don't waste your time on it. But the ending made me smile and want to type this shout out to great teachers everywhere who feel underappreciated.

Teachers Rule!!! (Well, good teachers who care about their students rule!) Whoo!

Motherly Advice: There is quite a bit of language to filter out on this one and suggestive dialogue, alcohol consumption and partying. With my filters on medium there was one scene in which we understand clear implications of Prof. Thurber's friend peeping on the other Prof. up for tenure. The scene is filtered of course but the implications are clear. Also there is one student who is clearly infatuated with Prof. Thurber and makes her feelings verbally known. Thankfully Prof. Thurber dashes out of the confrontation without a second thought. Depending on how you feel about these two things I'd say Tenure would be appropriate for teens and up.

Danielle'-Still Nightmaring about Pimples and Perms

So? I want to hear about who was/is your favorite teacher and why?