Slides for

1. Film and Education
Teaching and Learning Styles on Film

2. Objectives
•
To examine representations of teaching and learning
styles through The History Boys
•
Discuss representations of sexuality in the film
•
To consider the extent to which education is 'erotic'

3. The History Boys
•
•
•
•
•
2006
Produced: Kevin Loader,
Damian Jones, Nicholas
Hytner
Directed: Nicholas Hytner
Screenplay: Alan Bennett from
his stage play
Starring: Richard Griffiths,
Frances de la Tour, Stephen
Campbell Moore, Clive
Merrison

4. The History Boys
•
“Take it. Feel it. Pass it on…for someone. Somewhere.
One day. Pass it on, boys. Pass it on…”

5. Who are the History Boys?
•
Dakin – The Stud
•
Scripps – The Conscience
•
Posner – The Lover/Poet
•
Rudge – The Working Lad
•
Akhtar – The Ethnic Minority
•
Crowther – The Lip
•
Timms - The Class Clown
•
Lockwood – The Soldier

6. Where and When?
•
Where – Mise-en-Scene:
•
Northern
•
Urban
•
Leafy
•
Rural
•
“Provincial self-perception”
•
1980s (soundtrack)
•
Elements of 1970s
•
Attitudes of 1990s

7. Representations of Class & Ethnicity
•
Working Class?
•
Middle Class?
•
Yorkshire?
•
Ethnicity?

8. Representations of Class
•
Opening scenes – Holiday jobs cf Oxbridge aspirations

9. Representations of Class
•
Headmaster’s (BA Hull) snobbery:
•
“They’re clever but they’re crass…Culture they can get
from Hector, History they can get from you…”
•
“They need polish. Edge…I want to see us up there!”

10. Representations of Teaching Styles
•
Mr Hector (General Studies): “Life Lessons”
•
Mrs Dorothy Lintott (History): “Subject teaching”
•
Mr Irwin (Oxbridge): “Exam boosters”
•
The Head Master: “Results”

11. Teaching Style:
Hector
•
Traditional classroom
•
Wood, bricks
•
Multi-coloured pictures and
photos
•
“I was confusing learning with
the smell of cold stone”
Fox, UK

12. Teaching Styles: Key Question 1
•
“All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the
slightest human use”
•
AE Houseman
•
“We won’t be examined on that, Sir...happiness”
•
Question: What is education for?

13. Teaching Style: Irwin
•
Modern classroom of glass
and plastic, bare walls,
functional
•
“I’d go to Newcastle and be
happy”
Fox, UK

14. Teaching Style: Key Question 2
•
“You keep saying ‘Good Point’. Not Good point, Sir.
True” (Scripps)
•
“Nothing is appropriate” (Hector)
•
Question: Should you teach the Holocaust?

15. Intertextuality as Commentary
•
Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter: “Thank you for coming
back to me”
•
Drummer Hodge: Thomas Hardy “A saddish life. Though
not unappreciated...Unkissed. Unrejoicing. Unconfessed.
Unembraced”

16. Representation of Gender
•
“History’s a commentary on... the continuing
incapabilities of men...” (Lintott)
•
“Five centuries of masculine ineptitude” cf “The utter
randomness of things” (Lintott)
•
Question: How are the masculine and feminine
represented in The History Boys

17. Education as an erotic act - Fisher et al
•
Eros as life force, pervading all human interactions
•
Schooling as a process of discipining the body and
suppressing desire
•
The inevitability of a dynamic between pupils and
teachers
•
The distinction between "pedagogical eroticism and
pedagogical abuse" (McWilliam, 1996)

18. Schools as sexual sites - Fisher et al
•
Sites of sexual opportunity, tension and competition
•
Reinforced by popular culture, peer support
•
Dominance of heteronormativity
•
Male environments - homoeroticism of The History Boys

19. Representation of Sexuality 1
•
Representation of Male Adult Sexuality:
•
“The transmission of knowledge is itself an erotic
act” (Hector)
•
“This is a school and it isn’t normal” (The Headmaster)
•
“A grope is a grope” (Lintott)

20. Representation of Sexuality 2
•
Representation of Male Adolescent Awakening:
•
Dakin’s ‘conquest’
•
Scripps’ faith
•
Posner’s ‘in-love’

21. Representation of Sexuality 3
•
Dakin’s proposition of Irwin
•
Irwin’s response
•
Question: What do you think of the representation of
male (homo)sexuality in The History Boys?

22. Learning Styles
•
“Mr. Hector’s stuff’s not meant for the exams. It’s to make us more rounded
human beings” (Timms)
•
“We’ve got the most important exam in our lives...We’re just sat here reading
literature...” (Lockwood)
•
“Hector produces results but unpredictable and unquantifiable...There’s
inspiration, certainly, but how do I quantify that?” (The Headmaster)
•
“Lying works” (Dakin to Irwin)
•
“He was a good man. But I don’t think there’s time for his kind of teaching
anymore” (Irwin on Hector)
•
“One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of
the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them” (Lintott)