high school movie

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Episode 9: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Travel back to 1988 with Bill and . . . Carla, as we have a MOST excellent adventure together taking about another favorite movie that talks about school. When two disengaged high school students, Theodore Logan and William S. Preston, Esquire, are faced a failing grade in history class, they have just one option left – to do one kick-ass final project. But they know nothing about history. Just when they are about to give up hope and wallowing in despair at the Circle K, they are visited by a surprise guest from the future. And with the help of a handy phone booth as their vehicle, they travel through time, kidnapping historical figures along they way as they try to save their history grade and

Will Bill and Ted pass their history final? Is this movie the single greatest example of experiential learning ever made? How does time traveling in a phone booth compare to travel in a DeLorean? Is Missy the hot stepmom, just an excuse for Oedipal humor? Are Bill and Ted dumb or just totally bored? How did Jane Wiedlin from the GoGos get cast as Joan of Arc? We will discuss these essential questions and so much more. You won’t want to miss this episode! It will be most excellent!

Check out this trailer before you begin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fx6TugN7g

For those listeners who may have little experiences with phone booths, here is one that Carla runs by very frequently. Perhaps Bill and Ted visited Vasona Park, in Los Gatos.

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Episode 7: Stand and Deliver

It’s our first episode of the 2021-22 season.  We’re talking about Stand and Deliver, the true story of high school teacher Jaime Escalante who finds himself teaching math in East LA. He finds a group of students who find his less-than conventional teaching methods to be inspiring and he takes them all the was to AP Calculus. When they all successfully pass the AP Exam, their scores are challenged because of their ethnic surnames and they are forced to retake the exam with only one day to prepare.  No spoiler here. but they did make a movie about it, so . . .  The Real Life Escalante once said that this movie was “90% truth and 10% drama.”  Both Edward James Olmos (Escalante) and Lou Diamond Phillips (Angel Guzman) received Academy Award Nominations for their performances.

In this episode we talk about systemic racism, the dubious value of AP Courses, “Cholo” Culture, inner city schools, and the questionable role of “teacher as hero.”

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Episode 06: Election

We’re back!  After our pandemic hiatus, it felt great to be back in the studio to record Episode Six.

Coming off of one of the craziest elections seasons in American history, we made the obvious choice.  Election was released in 1999 and starred Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister, a high school civics teacher, and Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick, an overachieving student running unopposed for school president.  If only Mr. McAllister hadn’t despised Tracy Flick so much, things might have turned out differently. But instead we experience a high school election season like none other.

If you are already missing the election of 2020, then dive into Election and then listen as we explore high school elections, morals, ethics and so much more!

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Episode 05: Rushmore

If there is one thing Max Fischer loves, it’s his prep school Rushmore.  “I guess you’ve just gotta find something you love to do and then… do it for the rest of your life. For me, it’s going to Rushmore.”Although he is the king of extracurriculars, has the ear of the administration, and befriends a wealthy industrialist parent, Herman Blume,  Max is on Sudden Death Academic Probation.  According to his headmaster, “Too many extracurriculars, Max,  and not enough studying.” When Max falls for first grade teacher, Rosemary Cross, and becomes embroiled with a love triangle with Cross and Blume, his beloved Rushmore is threatened.  Join Carla and Bill as we talk about Wes Anderson’s film, Rushmore.

Special Guest, L+D Co-Founder, Greg Bamford, joins us this month.

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Epsiode 03: Remember The Titans

Based (oh, so very loosely) on the real events of the  T.C Williams high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia during 1971 as the school is integrated.  Black and white football players are forced to play together AND get to know each other as human beings.  This is a story about leadership  through change and also about how school is often a place where students experience huge social change.  Denzel Washington stars as the hard-ass Coach Boone.  Ryan Gosling, in his early, awkward days, can’t be missed.  If you ever had a coach who taught you about much more than just “the game” then take a couple of hours to watch this movie (free now on Disney +) and then join us as we talk about it.  Because that is what we do; we talk about movies that talk about schools.

Our guest this month is our friend Issac Vaughn, the Senior VP of business operations at Zenefits, Trustee emeritus at Hillbrook School, and a terrific storyteller.  Issac shares his stories of playing football at Lincoln High School in San Francisco before he became the first (and last) African American QB at Santa Clara University.  You’ll want to hear the full B-sides interview later this month!

Side note: Lots of people talk about the soundtrack of this movie.  You can listen to it here on Spotify. Thank us later.

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