Three movies that inspire me as a teacher (and they don’t take place in school)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Like a lot of people, I’m a sucker for David and Goliath stories, and Tucker: The Man and His Dream is a great one. Preston Tucker battles the Big Three automakers in the hopes of producing the “car of the future” with safety features such as disc brakes, seatbelts, and a pop-out windshield that would become standard equipment on later cars.
Jeff Bridges portrays Preston Tucker well, capturing his optimism and excitement. The ending is bittersweet, but the whole story is great!
Jobs (and Steve Jobs)
Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs is a polarizing figure and was a huge influence on the tech sector. Listing both the Aston Kutcher’s Jobs along with Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs is kind of cheating though. Both movies show a man that could see past what is currently happening and into what could be. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had a great quote to go along with this, “Without the Capacity for Invention a Civilization Dies on the Vine!”. Steve Jobs was one of those visionaries.
The Internship
Although the movie has been regarded as a two hour long Google commercial, there is more to it than that. At its core, the movie is all about learning from others as much as teaching others. My favorite scene is Josh Gad teaching Vince Vaughn. Josh is the tech expert, Vince is the people expert, and they both feed off of each other to become better than they were alone.
If nothing else, it’s nice to see how much has changed in ten years with the Google products.
The movie is rated PG-13, but there are a couple of scenes that would not be appropriate to be shown in school.
Honorable mentions
- The Greatest Showman: The music and dance scenes can’t outshine the reality that P.T. Barnum wasn’t the wholesome character you see on screen.
- Kindergarten Cop: Who doesn’t enjoy watching Arnold Schwarzenegger get beat up on by kindergartners? Kindergarten Cop is a wonderful movie and you should watch it!
- The Pirates of Silicon Valley: A dramatized view of the early personal computer era, following Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and more. Geez, there were a lot of Steves in the early computer era.
Where to watch
You can use the site JustWatch to find where these movies are streaming.
