Good teachers are the key to it, says filmmaker.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Academy Award-nominated writer and director M. Night Shyamalan promoted his new book “I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Movie Maker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America’s Education Gap,” here Wednesday.
Shyamalan sat down for a question-and-answer session with political pundit Chris Matthews at the Politics and Prose bookstore in the northwest region of the capital, during which they covered the Indian American director’s thoughts on the country’s public education system, what he discovered during his extensive research for the book, and how to go forward so that these problems can be fixed in the future.
Famous for shooting his movies around his home city of Philadelphia, Shyamalan was scouting locations at schools around the city for his 2008 film The Happening. During that time, he came to experience the depravity of inner city schools, particularly minority students who he says are often told subliminally by society that they simply aren’t as good or worthwhile as their Caucasian counterparts.
“A friend of mine, who teaches the [medical] residents at [University of Pennsylvania], told me what he tells his students on the first day,” Shyamalan explained regarding the impetus for writing the book. “He tells them ‘I need you all to tell your patients this: if they do these five things – sleep eight hours a day, exercise three times a week, have a balanced diet, don’t smoke, and be cognizant of your mental health – your chances of getting all diseases drops to such an incredible level [that] it beats every pill and every treatment ever created.’”
That’s when the director realized that the education system needed a similar paradigm of its own, saying that the important thing is to come up with five things that all have to be done together. “The important thing to remember is that if you don’t do even one of those things, your chances for getting diseases goes all the way back up to the norm,” said Shyamalan. “The education system has to be looked at the same way.”
Shyamalan understandably shied away from outlining what he believes are the five key steps for education reform in America – interested parties should read his book for that – but Shyamalan was frank and forthcoming with many of the findings he came across while conducting his research.
The central thesis Shyamalan returned to consistently was that teachers are at the core of whether or not a school is effective or not. “If you get four teachers in a row who are above average, in the 60th percentile, then you’re gaining [education] each year. But then if you get one [below average] teacher, the damage done by those kinds of teacher is like you’re losing a grade.”
Shyamalan said that the book is “based in fact,” and that he wanted to leave opinion and “gut feelings” out of it as much as possible. After spending the better part of four years poring over research and interviewing numerous experts and policymakers in various cities’ education systems, Shyamalan says that the data is the best indicator of what works and what doesn’t. “A heart surgeon doesn’t go by their gut to do surgery, there’s a set way to do it and that’s how it’s done.”
“Data does not support the theory that smaller class sizes will make teachers better,” said Shyamalan. “But extending the school year does.”
Never one to shy away from a metaphor, Shyamalan debunked an apparently prevalent misconception about the role of principals in schools. “About 80% of a principal’s job should be helping the teachers teach better, [as in] going to classrooms, telling them where they can improve, things like that. They shouldn’t be spending most of their time in management. If I’m a basketball player, I don’t want the coach spending his time trying to fill the seats, I want him teaching me how to play basketball!”
Both Matthews and Shyamalan attended Catholic schools in their youths, with Matthews implying that the strictness of Catholic school culture was perhaps the main reason why students who went there tended to succeed more often than not. Shyamalan countered by saying that if a school gets students involved in any kind of positive culture – not necessarily a strict or religious one, but even encourage students to celebrate school spirit – it goes a long way to fostering a better environment for education.
Born in Pondicherry but brought up around Philadelphia, Shyamalan became a household name in 1999 with the release of The Sixth Sense, which garnered him two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Since then, his films have had mixed receptions from critics and audiences. This past summer, he released his latest film, After Earth, starring Will Smith. The film received negative reviews from critics but grossed over $243 million worldwide.
[Photo by Deepak Chitnis.]
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com