History Main / SaveOurStudents

* ''Film/BigBrother2018'' is about Hong Kong-American ex-Marine Henry Chan taking up a job as a teacher in a dysfunctional classroom, and becoming a father figure to five students who each have their own struggles. Things are muddled with the presence of Jianying, an influential mobster who is trying to sabotage the school so he can buy the building and convert it into an apartment, [[spoiler: and also holds a grudge against Henry for a tragic incident that happened years ago.]]

* ''Film/BigBrother2018'' is about Hong Kong-American ex-Marine Henry Chan taking up a job as a teacher in a dysfunctional classroom, and becoming a father figure to five students who each have their own struggles. Things are muddled with the presence of Jianying, an influential mobster who is trying to sabotage the school so he can buy the building and convert it into an apartment, [[spoiler: alongside a grudge against Henry for a tragic incident that happened years ago.]]

** At the start of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Harry's first two Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, Quirrell and Lockhart, have both been lackluster and were not known to have taught their students anything of use, making the subject a joke with the students. [[spoiler:Quirrell turned out to be a host for Voldemort and subsequently died, while Lockhart turned out to be a fraud and ended up [[LaserGuidedKarma giving himself amnesia]] trying to obliviate Harry and Ron]]. Enter Remus John Lupin, who proves to be a highly competent expert who teaches the Hogwarts students everything they need to know about dealing with Dark creatures. He's even introduced [[EstablishingCharacterMoment waking up from his Hogwarts Express nap to save Harry from [[EmotionEater a Dementor.]] Through some early antics like putting Peeves in his place, DADA quickly becomes almost everyone's favorite subject, with only Draco and his cronies daring to disparage him.

** At the start of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Harry's first two Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, Quirrell and Lockhart, have both been lacklustre and were not known to have taught their students anything of use, making the subject a joke with the students. [[spoiler:Quirrell turned out to be a host for Voldemort and subsequently died, while Lockhart turned out to be a fraud and ended up giving himself amnesia trying to obliviate Harry and Ron]]. Enter Remus John Lupin, who proves to be a highly competent expert who teaches the Hogwarts students everything they need to know about dealing with Dark creatures. Through some early antics like putting Peeves in his place, DADA quickly becomes almost everyone's favorite subject, with only Draco and his cronies daring to disparage him.

* ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter''

*** On the other hand, one of the students went on to become a teacher and teaches at the same school hoping to help the students like she helped him. There is also a memorial with flowers dedicated to her outside the school, with a plaque that says "She made a difference." Also, the student she tried to stand up for begins studying for his GED at the end.

* The German comedy ''Fack ju Göhte''[[note]]a horribly (and deliberately) mangled attempt at writing "Fuck you, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe Goethe]]"[[/note]] is about a small-time bank robber who hid the spoils from his last job in a construction site just before the cops caught him. When he's released from prison some years later, construction has long since wrapped up, forcing him to accept a teaching job at the newly built Goethe Comprehensive School as a cover for his attempt to recover the booty. Naturally, his rough and disrespectful behavior gets him put in charge of the school's most troublesome class, with the story proceeding exactly as expected from there.

*** On the other hand, one of the students went on to become a teacher and teaches at the same school hoping to help the students like she helped him. There is also a memorial with flowers dedicated to her outside the school, with a plaque that says "She made a difference."

* Parodied in ''Series/{{MADtv}}'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-nirSq5s Nice White Lady sketch]], one of their better, and better-known, efforts.

[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'': HotTeacher Nao Kadena exploits the male students' {{lust}} to get them to study hard, offering them a MarshmallowHell or more if they do well on their tests. She motivates the female students by showing them the hot guys who go to prestigious universities. It's super effective.

* ''Film/LesChoristes'' has a failed musician who becomes a supervisor, and turns his class into a CherubicChoir, transforming the mischievous children's lives in the process.

* The last couple seasons of ''Series/HappyDays'' occasionally delved into this, with Fonzie teaching auto shop at Jefferson High.

** At the start of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Harry's first two Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, Quirrell and Lockhart, have both been lacklustre and were not known to have taught their students anything of use, making the subject a joke with the students. [[spoiler:Quirrell turned out to be a host for Voldemort and subsequently died, while Lockhart turned out to be a fraud and ended up giving himself amnesia trying to obliviate Harry and ron]]. Enter Remus John Lupin, who proves to be a highly competent expert who teaches the Hogwarts students everything they need to know about dealing with Dark creatures. Through some early antics like putting Peeves in his place, DADA quickly becomes almost everyone's favorite subject, with only Draco and his cronies daring to disparage him.

* [[Literature/TheAreasOfMyExpertise Teacher v. Unruly class; both learn lessons.]]

* This trope is applied in a military school in ''Film/MajorPayne''. The school has a very non-attentive dean who doesn't care about the kids as long as they're out of his hair, and the counselor can't get through the boys, likely partially due to the dean not listening to her, so nothing changes. But that very attitude allows Payne to whip the ROTC class into shape, and while several of his methods are very questionable, others win the admiration and respect of the boys, such as when he defends a student from an abusive stepparent who was about to hit him. (Payne had been about to hit that student himself earlier, but had backed off on realizing what a ''terrible'' idea it was, and that it wouldn't work anyway.)

* Wonderfully parodied in ''Film/Hamlet2'', when the teacher thinks of himself as saving both the drama program and his gangbanger students, but it turns out that [[spoiler:the kids are pretty well-off and get good grades, and they end up being the ones to save the teacher and his stuck-up pet students]].

* ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' PlayedWith this. Academic wise, the kids were fine. However, they have various other issues such as low self esteem, strict parents, etc. that they overcome with ThePowerOfRock.
** The film in turn served as a GenreKiller for this trope, replacing it with a new sub-genre combining this with AdultsAreUseless.

%%* This trope is applied in a military school in ''Film/MajorPayne''.

* ''Film/SisterAct 2'' fits the formula quite well, and it allows the sequel to be different from the first film.

* ''Film/StandAndDeliver'' is similarly based on a true story, though a much more idealistic one.

* Class 3-E of ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'' contains the students with the school's lowest grades, where they are subject to all sorts of school sanctioned mockery, bullying, and oppression in order to motivate the rest of the school to work hard to keep their grades up. One of the major premises of the series revolves around Koro-sensei (a nigh unkillable super-creature hell bent on destroying the world) becoming Class 3-E's new homeroom teacher and inspiring the students to excel despite their circumstances. It may very well be the most gloriously outlandish examples of this trope in all of fiction.

* ''Stand and Deliver'' (see Movies) is parodied mercilessly in a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode, where Cartman is sent to teach at an inner city high school. He takes on the pseudonym "Mr. Cartmenez" out of fear the pupils would outright murder a WASP teacher, and teaches the kids to cheat their way to the top, including talking one girl into getting an abortion because it's the ultimate form of cheating.

* One of the classic examples would be ''Film/ToSirWithLove'', starring Creator/SidneyPoitier. In what might seem HilariousInHindsight to people who grew up with the modern version of this trope (white teachers, minority students), the film has an educated black teacher helping out inner-city white youths.

* ''Literature/UpTheDownStaircase'' is another classic example, and one of the first to feature a ''female'' teacher.