Top 10 teacher movies

The folks over at Teacher Magazine have come up with a list (registration required) of the all-time Top 10 movies about teachers:

1. "Mr. Holland's Opus" (1995)
2. "Stand and Deliver" (1988)
3. "October Sky" (1999)
4. "Dangerous Minds" (1995)
5. "Freedom Writers" (2007)
6. "Chalk" (2006)
7. "To Sir With Love" (1967)
8. "Dead Poet's Society" (1989)
9. "Remember the Titans" (2000)
10. "Teachers" (1984)

You can read descriptions of them all, join in a discussion and see a list of also-rans at the magazine's site. Among the runners-up: "The Empire Strikes Back." Huh? It's because of Yoda -- that's Mr. Yoda to you. Teacher he was, but English taught he not.

-- Mitchell Landsberg

Open, unorganized outdoor space for children

Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena is showing the Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary, "Where Do the Children Play?" A discussion of the film follows with author Elizabeth Goodenough and Academy Award-winning filmmaker and USC faculty member Mark Harris. 

The event, which is free and open to the public, is at 5 p.m. Oct. 30 at Pacific Oaks College’s Eureka Campus, 45 Eureka St., Pasadena, CA 91103. Email for reservations.

The one-hour PBS documentary examines how restrictive patterns of sprawl, congestion and suburban development deprive children of outdoor play spaces vital for imagination, health and well-being.

The film was inspired by Goodenough’s book, "Secret Spaces of Childhood." She also edited a companion guide to the film, "A Place for Play," with photos, articles and children’s poetry.

Pacific Oaks offers upper division undergraduate and graduate-level college programs in human development, counseling and teacher education.

Foshay choir students in documentary film

A documentary film about the 2003 graduating class of choir members from the Foshay Learning Center gets its premiere Saturday.

Photo: Tom Sturges conducts the Foshay Choir at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

“Witness to a Dream” will be part of the Dances With Films Independent Film Festival in at the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood.

The 72-minute film tells the story of a group of at-risk students who were mentored over six years by music executive Tom Sturges after he took part in a career day program at the school. Along with Assistant Principal Regina Boutte, Sturges reached out to students who were faced with challenges that threatened their academic success. Yet succeed they did.

Members of the choir had a 100% graduation rate, a 97% acceptance rate to four-year colleges and a 92% college graduation rate.

Over six years, the choir performed for more than 50,000 people, including former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, former California Gov. Pete Wilson, former California First Lady Sharon Davis, and others. The choir also performed at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. In addition, the students wrote, sang and recorded 10 songs.

Reginald D. Brown videotaped and directed the documentary. Regina Boutte and Tom Sturges are executive producers.

-- Mary MacVean

1968 student protesters honored

School administrators weren't too happy at the time, but what a difference 40 years makes. Leaders of walkouts for civil and educational rights, which exploded across L.A. in 1968, will be honored Tuesday at the scene of the crime, as it were: L.A. Unified headquarters.

There will even be a reception, despite the regrettably bourgeois overtones of such a thing.

The school board president, Monica Garcia, has sponsored this resolution to note the moment in L.A. history: