School Life, 2016
This documentary follows a year at the Headfort School, an eccentric boarding school in Ireland that's a mix of tradition and classical education and rock'n'roll jam sessions. Leading the school are Amanda and John Leyden, both teachers who have been at the school for decades and are now facing down the idea of retirement.
Obviously I have huge biases when it comes to this subject matter, as I am a teacher and this is the age group I work with the most.
I really enjoyed this documentary as a slice-of-life of a really eccentric environment. The students learn scripture, and then in their ethics class they have a (relatively) open-minded discussion about gay marriage. (Leading to this all-time amazing quote from a child: "I don't know. Maybe sometimes it's better to be gay than to be single.") There is a school band, playing everything from contemporary hits to "Wild Thing", with students playing guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, and singing.
The film really focuses on two students in particular, Eliza and Ted, who are seemingly opposites. Eliza is very shy and withdrawn, but is an academic superstar. This isn't entirely obvious until a class is to compete in a trivia contest and the first young man to pick a teammate quickly chooses Eliza. Ted, on the other hand, is incredibly charismatic and outgoing, but struggles with dyslexia, making his studies a lot more difficult. John and Amanda both work to draw out the best in these students.
We don't see much of how John and Amanda teach, aside from a one-minute snippet here and there. But what does come across is their gift for blending an academic relationship with a surrogate-parent one, and their desire to see their students succeed.
There were a few gaps that made me have questions. Being a boarding school, my assumption would be that these children are all from relatively wealthy families, but maybe that's an incorrect assumption. We do get several hints in this direction, including the fact that one of their students "has done a bit of modeling" and another is seen practicing her harp. I wonder, in part, because the type of free-ranging educational structure that we see in this film is often something reserved for schools with wealthy children.
I also wish that we got a bit more of a sense of how John and Amanda see their roles. There is a little talk about "I don't know what I'll do with myself" regarding their retirement, but otherwise we get very little information on this front.
Still, this is a very charming look at a group of children and adults who have a special relationship. I enjoyed my time at Headfort.