Ryan Gosling is a young inner-city teacher whose ideals wither and die in the face of reality. Day after day in his shabby Brooklyn classroom, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm. Dan teaches his students how change works ‘ on both a historical and personal scale ‘ and how to think for themselves. His disappointments and disillusionment, however, have led to a serious drug habit. One of his students finds out and what happens makes the movie grow more interesting.

Glenn Holland (Dreyfuss) is a musician and composer who takes a teaching job to pay the rent while, in his ‘spare time’, he can strive to achieve his true goal – compose one memorable piece of music to leave his mark on the world. As Holland discovers ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’ and as the years unfold the joy of sharing his contagious passion for music with his students becomes his new definition of success.

Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother’s alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward–repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people.

Jack Black plays a guitarist who gets kicked out of a band because he grandstands too much – or, to put it another way, enjoys himself. Through an intercepted phone call, he gets a job as a substitute teacher for fifth grade at a private school. Neither students nor teacher quite know what to do with each other until Finn discovers that some of his young charges can play instruments; at once he starts turning them into a great rock & roll troupe that can crush his former band at an upcoming competition.

Jaime Escalante is a male mathematics teacher in a school in a latino neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country’s top algebra and calculus students. He inspires his dropout prone students to learn calculus to build up their self-esteem and do so well that they are accused of cheating.

Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf. A group of male teachers crosses the mountainous paths of remote Iranian Kurdish region. The men wander from village to village in search of students, carrying large blackboards on their backs – used as shelter, camouflage, and shields instead of for teaching purposes. One by one the men venture away from the group in search of students to teach. Along their way they face other hardships and obstacles, including enemy helicopters and gunfire.