School of Rock

Richard Linklater’s School of Rock is a comedy with a serious center: a substitute who has nothing to teach by the book, and a class that becomes a band. I bring this film in at the start of the year, for what it shows about confidence, collaboration, and the way a group of students can find they are better together than apart.

Watercolor of an exuberant teacher leaping with an electric guitar while a diverse class of kids sings and plays instruments together, evoking a classroom becoming a band in School of Rock.

A Band, on the First Day of School

Chiara • 2025-05-19

Sixth grade begins with a room full of strangers, each one quietly asking where they fit. Here’s the movie I reach for in those first days — School of Rock — and how Dewey Finn’s unlikely band becomes a way to talk about being yourself and belonging to something, both at once.

A Band, on the First Day of School Read Post »