Times’ staffers offer a list of fictional teachers of note.
Teachers made headlines this week with a one-day walkout protesting the level of state funding of education. That got us thinking about teachers in the arts and literature. Admittedly, it’s a big category; here are just a few favorites.
Books ‘The Whistling Season’
This charming novel, by the late, great Ivan Doig, introduced readers to Morrie Morris, an unlikely, unconventional and inspiring teacher who worked magic in a one-room schoolhouse in early-1900s Montana.
Stage ‘The King and I’
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1951 love story between a teacher and the King of Siam is on stage at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater in a handsome new revival staged by former Intiman Theatre head Bartlett Sher. (Look for an upcoming review by Seattle Times theater critic Misha Berson.)
Movies ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’
Based on a true character, this 1995 film stars Richard Dreyfuss as a would-be composer who finds his true calling as a teacher at an Oregon high school.
Books ‘Lucky Jim’
Most Read Entertainment Stories
Kingsley Amis’ 1954 classic of the campus-novel genre follows the hilarious (mis) fortunes and frustrations of a middling professor in England’s Midlands. Thought by many to be the funniest novel of the 20th century, it certainly contains the world’s most painfully vivid description of a hangover.
Seattle Times staff