History Main / SaveOurStudents

* ''MAnga/{{Gokusen}}'''s Yankumi [[spoiler:literally saves the school from being closed, in one episode.]]

* Done in the beginning of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''. Negi's class happens to be the worst on campus. Under Negi's leadership, they manage to hit the #1 rank. Then after the resident MadScientist (and smartest person in the whole school) transfers out, they promptly drop to second-to-last.
* Being a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs, ''Manga/MutekiKanbanMusume'' deconstructs this trope with Kayahara Sensei: This is the kind of teacher that she strikes to be, she is a BullyHunter, always trying to stop any abuse. Unfortunately, she is always depressed and is always being taken as a StringyHairedGhostGirl, unable to admit she didn’t enjoy teaching at all, and all her students are afraid of her and the only thing she accomplishes is being a SadistTeacher.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' inverts this. The teacher is a Ministry appointed tyrant who suppresses Defence Against the Dark Arts education and dishes out horrific punishments - resulting in the students forming a secret society to learn the spells they should be getting taught in class. Later in the story, the TyrantTakesTheHelm (the character Umbridge is the former trope namer for that) and the entire school conspires to drive her nuts until she resigns.

* This trope is OlderThanTelevision. In Upper Canada (now Southern Ontario) in the 1830s and 1840s, some schools were set up to teach the children of the local Black community. These schools were generally run by white Abolitionists who were teaching what was considered "proper" in those days, though the prevailing attitudes of the time led to segregation of the Black students from the white students.

See Also SaveOurTeam, the sports version of this trope, and WhiteMansBurden, which also frequently appears in such works. Often overlaps with SuckySchool or BoardingSchoolOfHorrors. The protagonist is usually a PsychologistTeacher.

* The German comedy ''Fack ju Göhte''[[note]]a horribly 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.

* The German comedy ''Fack ju Göhte''[[note]]a horribly 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.

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/ThePrimeOfMissJeanBrodie''. The title character fulfills all expectations at first, but it slowly becomes clear that she's having a very harmful effect on her students, which she remains completely unapologetic about.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS7xDS24GGE&list=PLED4627D7AE5D7241 Dangerous Wands]], a College Humor parody of ''Film/DangerousMinds'', puts an adult [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hermione Granger]] in charge of a class of inner-city magic students.
* {{Inverted}} and {{parodied}} by Website/TheOnion. "[[https://www.theonion.com/frustrated-inner-city-students-running-out-of-ideas-to-1819574439 Frustrated Inner-City Students Running Out of Ideas to Motivate Teachers]]."

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' had Roger dress up as a professor and spout "inspirational" nonsense which convinces one of his students to kill his father.

* Deconstructed in ''Theatre/TheHistoryBoys''. Irwin is hired by the principal in order to get the pupils to pass the {{Oxbridge}} examinations, and he succeeds. Specifically, he succeeds through his encouragement of lies and pretense, the sort of thing that the inspirational CoolTeacher was trying to steer them away from. And the CoolTeacher gropes his pupils. And the principal doesn't really care about the students as much as the school's ranking.

See Also SaveOurTeam, the sports version of this trope, and WhiteMansBurden, which also frequently appears in such works. Often overlaps with SuckySchool. The protagonist is usually a PsychologistTeacher.

* ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' PlayedWith. 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.

* ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'' One student ends up '''dead''', and another gets expelled. The remaining students learn, though. Those two students had bad "endings" because one [[spoiler: had an oppressive father and the son couldn't handle the constant verbal abuse and over-the-top expectations so he committed suicide]]. The second student arguably misinterprets the teacher's advice and goes a bit too far with it, although it is also suggested that he was a naturally rebellious type who would have rubbed the school establishment up the wrong way at some point anyway.

* About a decade earlier, Poitier was on the other side of this, playing the ringleader of a classroom full of delinquents that Creator/GlennFord tries to reach in ''Film/BlackboardJungle''.

* One of the earliest film cases is ''Film/BlackboardJungle''. It's still one of the best, partly because the progress is slower and harder than in most of these examples. The end is only the beginning of victory.

* About a decade earlier, Poitier was on the other side of this, playing the ringleader of a classroom full of delinquents that Creator/GlennFord tries to reach in ''Blackboard Jungle''.

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

** See ''StandAndDeliver'' (also listed above).

* Inverted in the HBO movie ''Film/{{Cheaters}}''. The teacher comes in to coach the Academic Decathalon Team which is a Super Bowl for nerds (this writer was a member of said team in high school). Intimidated by the school team that had won the competition every year, the team members stumble upon a copy of the test. When said teacher finds out, he encourages the team to cheat.

Often, though not always, has a racial/class element to it, with either a [[WhiteMansBurden white, sheltered teacher]] in a gun-ridden InnerCitySchool, or a black, fought-his-way-to-the-top teacher among privileged-but-bored upper-class white kids. Also has a strong tendency toward {{Glurge}}. Naturally, ''Website/TheOnion'' [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39341 went after this one]] but good.

* This trope is applied in a military school in ''Film/MajorPayne''.
* ''Conrack''. See {{Literature}}

* ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie''. See {{Literature}}.

* Played straight in ''Film/HunkyDory'', in which drama teacher Vivienne attempts to inspire the students of her apathetic school through a [[SchoolPlay rock musical rendition of Shakespeare]]'s ''TheTempest.''

** [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism "Lambs to the slaughter here."]] - Marcia Donnelly

* ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3|AbsenceOfJustice}}'' does this on occasion, with Evil Academy having various difficulties after the former dean died [[spoiler:...sort of...]], and his immediate heir didn't exactly take care of the academy in his stead. With the administrators almost entirely being [[ChaoticStupid demons]], very little stands in the way of the academy falling apart. Then again, with the students almost entirely being demons, nobody really cares. (They're a bit more interested with [[spoiler:Tyrant Overlord Baal swiping their stuff]].) Despite all this, [[CloudCuckooLander Mr. Champloo]] still has his teaching integrity. [[spoiler:Helps that he had direct orders from the former Overlord to keep the academy from falling into an even ''deeper'' level of hell.]]

* {{Inverted}} and {{parodied}} by Website/TheOnion. "[[http://www.theonion.com/articles/frustrated-innercity-students-running-out-of-ideas,31018/ Frustrated Inner-City Students Running Out Of Ideas To Motivate Teachers]]."

* ''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.
** "How do I reach these keeeds?"

* The [[http://www.teachforamerica.org Teach For America]] program hopes to inspire this, using people who who wouldn't normally be teachers.
** It has a UK equivalent called [[http://www.teachfirst.org.uk/ Teach First]]. Both are notorious for burning their teachers out by assigning ill-trained but well-meaning individuals to the toughest schools.

* Pat Conroy was a teacher before he sold his first book. His memoir of this, ''The Water is Wide'' got adapted twice.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

[[folder:Films]]

** About a decade earlier Poitier was on the other side of this, playing the ringleader of a classroom full of delinquents that Creator/GlennFord tries to reach in ''Blackboard Jungle''.

* Wonderfully parodied in ''Film/{{Hamlet 2}}'', 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]].

[[folder:Videogames]]

[[folder:Web Originals]]

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

* Simultaneously parodied and played straight in ''Film/HighSchoolHigh''. The school is initially absurdly run down and overrun by criminals, but Mr. Clark plays the "kindhearted CoolTeacher" trope pretty much straight.

* Simultaneously parodied and played straight in ''Film/HighSchoolHigh''.

See Also SaveOurTeam, the sports version of this trope, and WhiteMansBurden, which also frequently appears in such works. Often overlaps with SuckySchool.

Often, though not always, has a racial/class element to it, with either a [[WhiteMansBurden white, sheltered teacher]] in a gun-ridden InnerCitySchool, or a black, fought-his-way-to-the-top teacher among privileged-but-bored upper-class white kids. Also has a strong tendency toward {{Glurge}}. Naturally, ''TheOnion'' [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39341 went after this one]] but good.

Nobody's school system is perfect, but some are ''[[SuckySchool really ]]''[[SuckySchool bad]]. Whether it's a single class that's lost the will to learn, or an entire school that would be "better off as a parking lot", the students that go here are only an inch from completely giving up on themselves -- if they haven't already. And just when all is darkest, here comes a new teacher...

* Played equally straight in 1999's ''Film/MusicOfTheHeart'', starring Creator/MerylStreep as Roberta Guaspari, the teacher who started the Harlem Schools Violin Program. And yes, it was also based on a true story.