School of Rock

                The movie starts off with one of the main characters, Dewey Finn, getting kicked out of his band because he is over enthusiastic and seen as childish. He is also confronted by this roommates about paying rent and the need to grow up. Dewy takes a job as a substitute teacher, pretending to be his roommate Ned. Dewy impersonates Ned and is hired at a prestigious prep school called Horace Green. Dewey decided to use his students, making them into a band, so that he can enter them into the battle of the bands competition and win the prize money. He starts to teach the students all about rock music and thought that does end up teaching them a few good lessons. Dewey and the class sped three weeks of class practicing, setting up lights, costumes and fooling the other teachers and the principle. Dewey even convinces the principle to let him take the students on a field trip, she doesn’t know he really means the bathe of the bands competition. The plan all goes bad when Ned opens a check from Horace Green and Dewey comes clean. Dewey ask Ned to keep it a secret but Ned’s girlfriend finds out and gets the police involved. The police show up at parent’s night and Dewey runs away.

The next day the students decide they still want to compete in the battle of the bands even though Dewey was using them. They sneak out the school and use the school bus that was going to take them to the field trip, they pick Dewey up and go to the competition. The parents find out the students are missing and all head to the competition. Dewey says that if they want to win they should play the song that Zack wrote, he proves that he is a good man. The students play in the competition and don’t end up winning, but they say it is okay because they had fun. The parents realize that their students are more than just smart prep school kids. Dewey does not have a teaching license and so he cannot be their teacher, but he starts a after-school music program teaching students rock music.

Stereotypes:

Teachers Pet; Summer is the typical teacher’s pet. She is concerned with getting gold starts and being graded. She knows the schedule by heart and gets worries because they are deviating from the schedule. When she figures out that Dewey is an imposter her first reaction is that she is upset because they spent three weeks doing work and not getting graded. When it comes to the band summer takes on the role of band manger. This is perfect for her because she is in control and has some sense of authority. There is some truth to this stereotype. All middle schoolers want to be liked by their teacher, and some students are more prone to leadership. This can be overly exaggerated and that creates the teacher pet persona.

 Asian Nerd: Lawrence is the Asian Nerd. He thinks that all he is good at is school and that he cannot be cool. The stereotype is that all Asians are smart and school is all that they are good at. The truth is that some kids can be “better” at school but that has nothing to do with their race. The Asian culture is vastly different from the US and there are aspects of that culture that are more focused on academic success. This focus on success has been turned into the stereotype that all Asians are good at school and therefore they cannot be cool.

 Fancy Pants: Brian. If I am going to be honest, when I first saw Brian I immediately thought that this character was trying to portray a homosexual character. This fits into the stereotype that all man who have a high pitch voice and are concerned with fashion are homosexual. The movie never outright says anything about Brian’s sexuality (he is also 12) but because of preconceived ideas and stereotypes it is assumed.  

Like me: I was most like the teacher’s pet. I was the students who would write down names of my classmates who misbehaved when there was a sub. I was constantly worries about getting good grades and fixated on the directions. I wanted to do everything right and obsessed over my teacher.