James Dean

From All Things Considered (June 3, 2005) comes Bob Mondello's remembrance of James Dean, the actor who became an icon after making only three movies. Also from the same year (the 50th anniversary of Dean's death) comes this second piece by Steve Proffitt.

Musings

• Some, possibly even much, of Dean's appeal seems to be visual--capturing a certain look. Here's just one online gallery, the JamesDeanGallery.com, or, perhaps even more iconic, a collection of art posters. How does these images relate to traditional notions of masculinity, then or now?
  
  
• Dean is forever associated with the phrase "rebel without a cause." What does this phrase mean to you?
  
  
• In the film, Rebel Without a Cause, Dean's character, Jim Stark, occupies a difficult and increasingly dangerous relationship with the real guys, the "tough guys," of his high school. What role did seemingly strong guys play in your high school in deciding who or what was "cool"?
  

Frank McCourt and Other Teachers

"Long before he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, the late Frank McCourt was a teacher in the New York City schools. Relationships formed with 12,000 mostly teenaged students over 30 years form the basis for his new memoir, Teacher Man. McCourt tells Jacki Lyden about life in the classroom." Listen here, from All Things Considered (1/14/06 - 8:14)

Musings

1. How would you characterize McCourt's attitude towards teaching in his interview or reading the Prologue to his book, Teacher Man (available here)? Would such an attitude likely to make him a good or a bad teacher?
   
   
2. David Brown's retrospective piece (All Things Considered, 8/4/06) on the Kashmere High School soul band--dubbed the "greatest high school band ever"--reveals the value of audio files in delivering a wealth of information in compact form (in this case, 8:19 minutes). Much of the piece here is a touching interview with the 92-year-old master teacher, Conrad Johnson, someone who dared to break the mold—and that’s exactly what Johnson did with the Kashmere band, producing a full, commercial-sounding funk band when other high school bands were playing tired and timid semi-classical pops standards. In your own words, what made Johnson such an inspiring teacher?
   
   
3. Try reminiscing about a favorite teacher of your own, especially one as eccentric one like Conrad Johnson.
    
4. Identify the outstanding characteristics of any of the following teachers: math teacher George Nobl, Kimberly Oliver, the 2006 Teacher of the year (NPR interview, 6/5/06 - 6:31), a math teacher, Louis Leithold, music teacher Johanna Grussner, or Alix Black discussing her teacher-mom. Compare or contrast any two of these teachers.
    
5. Here's a list of films about educators from UAB and one from Amazon.com. Here's a list of books about great teachers, from Amazon's listmania: Very Special Teachers. Describe a noted teacher from one of these films or books.