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'Goodbye, Mr. Chips' (1939) -

One of cinema's most endearing movies about teachers and teaching, 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips' stars Robert Donat as school teacher Mr. Chipping, whose academic career and personal life is retold as he ages over the course of the film from a young 24-year-old to an elderly gentleman in his mid-80s.

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'Blackboard Jungle' (1955) -

Set in a tough interracial inner-city school, 'Blackboard Jungle' follows the progress of new teacher Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) as he attempts to establish a modicum of discipline in the classroom and rein in anti-social behavior. The movie is noted for its rock and roll soundtrack and for a young Sidney Poitier, who plays a rebellious, yet musically talented student.

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'The Great Debaters' (2007) -

This biographical drama revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) to place students at the historically black Wiley College on an equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s.

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'Dead Poets Society' (1989) -

A classic among school and teacher-themed movies, 'Dead Poets Society' tells the story of English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams), who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.

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'To Sir, with Love' (1967) -

This British drama deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. Interim teacher Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) accepts a position at North Quay Secondary School in the tough East End of London. Faced with unruly behavior and distasteful pranks, Thackeray treads carefully in order to gradually win the class over.

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'Stand and Deliver' (1988) -

'Stand and Deliver' is the true story of Bolivian-American educator Jaime Escalante, who taught mathematics at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. He strove to change the school culture to help the students, mostly poor working-class Latinos, excel in academics. Edward James Olmos stars as Escalante. 

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'Detachment' (2011) -

Substitute teacher Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody) drifts from school to school but eventually becomes a role model to his students and others. The film is essentially a chronicle of one month in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators, and students through the eyes of Barthes.

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'The Man Who Knew Infinity' (2015) -

'The Man Who Knew Infinity' stars Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan, a real-life mathematician who studied his way out of poverty in Madras, India to be accepted at Cambridge University during the First World War. Ramanujan becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G. H. Hardy, portrayed by Jeremy Irons.

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'Up the Down Staircase' (1967) -

English teacher Sylvia Barrett (Sandy Dennis) is daunted by her first posting, to an overcrowded New York City high school of 3,000 students, many of them troubled. Her intention is to get the teens to become good students and engage in real learning. But resigning her position is always at the back of her mind.

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'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1969) -

Eccentric Scottish schoolteacher Jean Brodie (Maggie Smith) impresses her students with extravagantly romantic ideas about life and love. But Brodie's unorthodox teaching methods and her undue influence on the girls sends her on a collision course with her school's conservative headmistress.

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'Conrack' (1974) -

Based on a true story, 'Conrack' is about a young teacher, Pat Conroy (Jon Voight), assigned to a school on an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated by mostly poor black families. 'Conrack' is how the population pronounce Conroy's name, speaking as they do in a unique creole tongue known as Gullah. He tries to teach the children about the outside world but comes into conflict with the school's officials.

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'Lean on Me' (1989) -

Loosely based on the story of Joe Louis Clark, a real-life inner city high school principal in Paterson, New Jersey, 'Lean on Me' follows Clark (portrayed by Morgan Freeman) as he attempts to improve conditions at the school, which is at risk of being taken over by the New Jersey state government unless students improve their test scores.

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'Kindergarten Cop' (1990) -

In one of his most popular roles, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays police detective John Kimble who goes undercover as a teacher at a kindergarten in order to apprehend bad guy Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson) before he can get to his ex-wife and son.

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'Dangerous Minds' (1995) -

'Dangerous Minds' stars Michelle Pfeiffer as LouAnne Johnson, on whose biography, 'My Posse Don't Do Homework,' the film is based. Johnson took up a teaching position at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where most of her students were poor African-American and Latino teenagers. The story follows her efforts to educate her class using teaching methods that fall outside the established curriculum.

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'The Miracle Worker' (1962) -

This biographical film is about Anne Sullivan, blind tutor to Helen Keller. Anne Bancroft portrays Sullivan, who at the age of five contracted trachoma, an eye disease, which left her partially blind and without reading or writing skills. She overcame her disability and ended up tutoring the young deaf-blind Keller (portrayed by Patty Duke), who later became an author, political activist, and lecturer.

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'Mr. Holland's Opus' (1995) -

Glen Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is a high-school music teacher who aspires to write his own composition. Holland has to juggle academic life with his responsibilities at home, which includes interacting more effectively with his profoundly deaf son.

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'Music of the Heart' (1999) -

Based on the 1995 documentary film 'Small Wonders' about a music teacher in East Harlem who teaches underprivileged children how to play the violin, 'Music of the Heart' basically expands the subject, with Meryl Streep portraying the teacher in question, Roberta Guaspari.

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'The Emperor's Club' (2002) -

Prep school teacher William Hundert (Kevin Kline) attempts to redeem Sedgewick Bell (Emile Hirsch), an incorrigible student who frequently disrupts class and does poorly in his homework.

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'School of Rock' (2003) -

Jack Black plays struggling rock guitarist Dewey Finn, who after getting kicked out of his own band becomes a substitute teacher of a nerdy elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into, guess what, a rock band!

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'Mona Lisa Smile' (2003) -

Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) takes a position teaching History of Art at the all-female Wellesley College during the 1950s. Freethinking Watson is dismayed by her students' conservative mindset, and so decides to teach the girls to question their traditional social roles.

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'Half Nelson' (2006) -

'Half Nelson' concerns a troubled inner city middle-school history teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling), who forms a friendship with one of his students after she discovers that he has a substance abuse habit.

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'Freedom Writers' (2007) -

Hilary Swank portrays Erin Gruwell, a tutor known for her unique teaching method and whose book, 'The Freedom Writers Diary,' provides the inspiration for this film. The book comprises real diary entries by Gruwell and her students about the troubles of their past, present, and future.

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'The Class' (2008) -

Also known as 'Entre les Murs,' this French production is a semi-autobiographical account of French language and literature teacher François Bégaudeau and his struggles with "problem children" in a Paris school.

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'Song for a Raggy Boy' (2003) -

This disturbing historical drama, set in 1939, is based on fact and centers on St. Judes Reformatory School, an Irish school for boys. Sadistic Brother John (Iain Glen) prefers punishment to rehabilitation, and rules with an iron fist. Then along comes new lay teacher William Franklin (Aidan Quinn) to liberate the boys from their oppressors.

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'Precious' (2009) -

Precious (Gabourey Sidibe, pictured) is a 16-year-old victim of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. Offered a chance to attend an alternative school, she is inspired by her new teacher, Blu Rain (Paula Patton), to learn to read and write. In time, the youngster's life starts to head in a new and positive direction.

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'The Wave' (2008) -

Known in German as 'Die Welle,' this socio-political thriller follows history teacher Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel), who is forced to teach a class on autocracy despite being an anarchist. His experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins dreadfully out of control when the class effectively becomes a self-governing social unit with a life of its own.

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'October Sky' (1999) -

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who takes up rocketry and eventually becomes a NASA engineer. The film is based on fact: Homer teamed up with other science geeks at school and with the encouragement of their teacher, Freida J. Riley (portrayed by Laura Dern), began to experiment with rockets.

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'Good Will Hunting' (1997) -

Written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (who costars as Will Hunting), this movie also features Robin Williams as Dr. Sean Maguire, a psychologist who helps the gifted Hunting, a mathematics genius, to find a new direction in his life.

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'Teachers' (1984) -

Social studies tutor Alex Jural (Nick Nolte) finds himself embroiled in teacher disputes and an impending lawsuit against his school. On top of that, he begins a relationship with one of his former students, Lisa Hammond (JoBeth Williams), and has to deal with the disapproving vice principal, Roger Rubell (Judd Hirsch).

Sources: (Britannica) (Biography) (Freedom Writer Foundation)

See also: What were your favorite celebs like in high school? 

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