School of Rock

What perplexed me greatly after going to see "School of Rock" with my family was how on earth the MPAA could have given it the same PG-13 rating as some obviously older, more risqui movies.  I suppose that tame swear words such as "hell" and "damn," (commonly used on network TV these days,) combined with a scene where two adults consume beer, and brief references to drugs and groupies were what caused the overly conservative rating.  However, I had no problem with this movie and may have enjoyed it more than my kids, who have now been quoting the movie shamelessly for two weeks.

Jack Black (Shallow Hal, High Fidelity, Boogie Nights) plays Dewey Finn, a displaced rock-and-roller who out of desperation for rent money impersonates his roommate to land a substitute teaching job at the most high-profile private school in town.  Of course, in the real world, this scenario wouldn't fly (because as my 8-year-old pointed out...they would have asked to see his drivers' license!)  But the thought of a burnout miscreant in charge of a fourth grade class is just enough to make us not care, and want to see what happens.  The fun starts almost immediately when he admits to the class, "Look, I have a hangover...can you guys just have recess for the rest of the day?"

Soon, "Mr. Schneebley" gets an idea: form these 10-year-olds into a rock band so great that during the regional rock challenge, he can stick it to the guys who kicked him out of his former band.  In an actual school, parents would be justified in their outrage at students spending three solid weeks on such an endeavor.  Here, however, we get to see how cool music class COULD be, if a kids' music teacher would just lay low on the Bach for a change and teach them the roots of what they're listening to now, and the feelings that motivate and result from music.

Watching the kids in the movie develop their talents and knowledge is just as entertaining as the notion of a teacher dissecting the origins of rock-and-roll using a large chart and some video clips.  I saw a music class I'd have given anything to attend in middle school, and of course, kids always dig it when an adult acts silly and kids act cool.

There is no soppy ending here...Dewey Finn remains true to himself, to the end.  The ending is not your predictable warm-and-fuzzy ending, but you do understand why Finn's lessons were important and how much he inspired the kids.  This movie presented wonderful opportunities to discuss rock and roll with our kids, to further explain some of the concepts they saw in the movie.  We encouraged each child to say which child they saw themselves in and why, what they learned about music, whether they would prefer Dewey Finn's music class to the one they have at school and why.  They had lots of interesting questions, too.  My 6-year-old son has since spontaneously composed at least three rock songs, complete with rhyming words and a melody, that rival some of the rubbish I hear on the radio anymore. 

"School of Rock" is a movie about inspiring kids' spirit and creativity.  And in our family at least, it carried over into real life.  The movie gave us an opportunity to teach the kids about the evolution and
the role of rock and roll in the last fifty years, and the important contributions of Elvis, the Beatles, and Chuck Berry.  One recent day at school, Annie's music teacher gave the kids a hip assignment: he asked students to bring in a song they thought was important, and to describe its importance to the class.  Other kids brought in Britney Spears and Lil' Bow Wow...Annie brought in "Video Killed the Radio Star," complete with a report she wrote herself about it being the first video ever played on MTV, and how video changed music forever.  She taught the kids something that day, and both her parents and her music teacher are proud of her.  If her music teacher's newfound hipness has nothing to do with the release of "School of Rock," at least seeing the movie made my daughter understand that contemporary music is also important and deserves further study.

-Heidi McDonald

Heidi McDonald is a part-time freelance writer who works full-time and lives with her husband, two children and a spastic beagle.  Heidi's work has appeared in numerous periodicals, over radio airwaves,
and on the internet.