Here Comes the Boom: A Review from a Teacher’s Perspective

Here Comes the Boom with Kevin James is a cute and inspirational movie about a Biology teacher stepping in to the world of MMA fighting to help save the Band teacher’s job. In the beginning, Kevin James’ character has lost his passion for teaching.  There is this great moment when he hears the band playing and looks almost inspired  but he just shows how unmotivated he is in the end. The teachers are called to a teacher’s meeting and they are informed of the budget problems their school is facing.  Their school is strapped for cash, very reflective of so many of our schools current state, and of course all extra curricular are being dropped.  He asks how much it would cost to save the program and vows to raise the money.  James’ character then gets in to the world of MMA fighting to raise the money. As the movie progresses he begins to get his passion back for teaching and becomes a passionate teacher again.  He inspires the students and the faculty.  The whole movie is heartwarming (and yes that was an over-simplified view) but there are some flaws from a teacher’s point of view.

Most of the flaws revolve around the teachers’ meeting and for some reason these ideas really bother me. Maybe it is because of the pension problems in the state of Illinois or maybe it is because of the reform with tenure, but it really struck a nerve.  My first issue was that the principal was making the budget cuts.  He said he said that he conferred with some other administrators and had “cleared it” with the union, but in a real school situation he wouldn’t be the one to make these cuts.  He would have input, but the superintendent and the school board would be the ones to make the ultimate decision.

Also the way the cuts were presented maybe in some schools cuts would be addressed this way, but with a good administrator the faculty that was getting cut would be notified in person and in private.  The union was glazed over here, which might be okay because of people’s current view of them, but they wouldn’t have had a say in the cuts themselves.  The union would be able to, maybe, help determine when the programs were cut or help the teachers deal with issues that arise contractually with cuts.

The principal also says they are cutting all extra curricular activities, band is not an extra curricular activity.  It is a course, albeit a non-core course, so why they would be cutting band and no other non-core course is beyond me.  (I know it is for the plot of the movie, but come on!  Get the facts right!) Yes, the part where sports were brought up bothered me, but that was actually pretty accurate.  Most schools will choose to fund sports over the arts, that is just the way it is.

Now to the part that really bothered me… tenure!  I’m not sure that the writers of this movie understood the concept of tenure.   One teacher during the meeting states that the principal was cutting band as an extra curricular activity so Henry Winkler (the band director) lost his tenure.  Huh?!  People, tenure as it was, and soon will no longer be in the state of Illinois, is this: after you have been teaching for four consecutive years in a district if you get rehired for the fifth year you receive tenure.  Tenure is/was protection for teachers.  The first three years that a person is teaching they can be let go for no real reason.  The fourth year a reason has to be given, but it doesn’t have to be a good one, i.e. she doesn’t smile enough.  Once a teacher has tenure they are harder to get rid of, but it is still possible.  The administration needs to provide examples of poor evaluations and have proof that the teacher isn’t doing  their job.  So it is possible, but extra-curricular activities would have no part of that.  Part of band could be considered extra-curricular.  Marching band and performances can be looked at as extra curricular, but the program itself is not and taking away the extra curricular part would have no effect on the program being cut itself.  I get that is what was needed for the story line, but why not say the program is being cut to half-time?  That would be more realistic and that would cause the teacher to lose his tenure. (Part-time teachers don’t usually get tenure.)

Aside from these points, which by the way took up maybe five minutes of the movie, I enjoyed the movie.  It made you want to jump on your desks to engage your students! Which as a side note I wouldn’t try, most desks wouldn’t support you and you’d probably really hurt something!  Teachers do get rundown by the system like the main character did and we do sometimes need to be reminded to inspire our students.  With the atmosphere of our schools right now because of the pressure of high stakes testing and showings student growth and our budget problems, sometimes we need to be inspired to inspire!