We like to talk about movies that talk about school, and we bet you do too. This podcast is for anyone who works at a school, goes to school, or ever went to school! Movies about school have shaped our national narrative about what school is like, about the relationships between teachers and studen…
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In this episode of Heads Down Two Thumbs Up, Bill and Carla discuss School of Rock. This iconic movie features Jack Black as a slacker musician who, in a moment of desperation, lies to get a substitute teaching gig at a pretentious elementary school. Joan Cusack plays the uptight principal who only lightens up when […]
In this episode of Heads Down Two Thumbs Up, Bill and Carla discuss Almost Famous. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, this semi-autobiographical story is NOT set in a school, but it is about learning. When high school student William Miller gets the chance to follow his passion of music journalism and is invited to […]
• episode transcript (click to read) In this special edition episode, we focus exclusively on the music of movies. The soundtrack. The score. We love this quote from Underground Press: As music can tell the story and explain the plot, filmmakers use it very carefully to build the tone and mood of a film. Also, […]
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 […]
You watched the movie, you listened to the podcast, and now it's time to listen to the B-Side from The Karate Kid. Bill sits down with Jesse Lubinsky for an extended interview. If you're completely lost, go back and listen to full episode of The Karate Kid, and then listen to this. It'll make more […]
This month, Bill and Carla talk Karate Kid, the iconic 1984 movie staring Ralph Macchio as the young Karate student of Mr. Miyagi played by Pat Morita. We discuss the relationship between master teacher and student apprentice, the Dojo as school for life, bad fashion, and the many filming locations of the film. If you […]
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 […]
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 […]
You watched the movie, you listened to the podcast, and now it’s time to listen to the B-Side from Rushmore. Carla sits down with Greg Bamford for an extended interview. If you’re completely lost, go back and listen to full episode of Rushmore, and then listen to this. It’ll make more sense.
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 […]
If you ever went to school – so basically everyone – you knew a pack of Mean Girls. Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and the ultimate Queen Bee, Regina George, rule the school. They wear pink on Wednesdays and are SO Fetch. When homeschooled Cady Heron moves from Africa to the Chicago suburbs, she becomes “mainschooled” […]
You watched the movie, you listened to the podcast, and now it’s time to listen to the B-Side from Remember the Titans. We sit down with Issac Vaughn for an extended interview. If you’re completely lost, go back and listen to full episode of Remember the Titans, and then listen to this. It’ll make more […]
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 […]
You watched the movie, you listened to the podcast, and now it’s time to listen to the B-Side from Dead Poets Society. Carla sits down with Joe Romano for an extended interview. If you’re completely lost, go back and listen to full episode of Dead Poets Society, and then listen to this. It’ll make more […]
If you are a teacher today, there is probably a small part of you that wanted to be as inspiring and passionate as John Keating. And if you were a student – ever – you probably yearned for a teacher who stood on desks, encouraged you to rip pages out of the text book, and […]
Welcome to our first official episode! And there was no debate on our pick to kick off this podcast. It’s spring in Chicago and Ferris Bueller opens his shades, peers out at a glorious blue sky and asks, “How could I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?” Thus begins his […]
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