Helen Plum Library

Robin Williams portrays English professor John Keating, who, in an age of crew cuts, sport coats and cheerless conformity, inspires his students to live life to the fullest, exclaiming "Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!" The charismatic teacher's emotionally charged challenge is met by his students with irrepressible enthusiasm, changing their lives forever

Cultural critic David Kepesh finds his state of "emancipated manhood" thrown into tragic disarray. David is a renowned college professor whose life is turned inside out when he becomes involved in a passionate relationship with Consuela. Consuela is a well-mannered student who awakens a sense of sexual possessiveness in her teacher. As their sexual relationship evolves, an incredible love story is born

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them a damaged, brainy troublemaker, and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam

Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite East coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer...

Bianca is a content high school senior whose world is shattered when she learns the student body refers to her as "Designated Ugly Fat Friend" to her prettier, more popular friends. With her universe turned upside down, she ignores words of wisdom from her favorite teacher and enlists Wesley, a slick but charming jock, to help set her apart from the pack and erase her label forever. In doing so, she hopes to land her crush Toby, and to overthrow the...

Three comedy films that portray teenagers and the high school experience in the 1980s

A true story about a teacher in a racially divided school who gives her students what they've always needed, a voice. Erin Gruwell comes to a southern California high school, bubbling over with naive optimism. She quickly discovers that her unruly classroom is not easily won over by her good intentions. After a few floundering attempts to connect with her students, Gruwell gives them the assignment of keeping journals about their own lives. This assignment...

"In this wickedly sharp, propulsive debut, a classicist must outmaneuver her manipulative mentor. Tessa Templeton has thrived at Oxford University, under the tutelage and praise of esteemed classics professor Christopher Eccles. Yet shortly before her thesis defense, Tessa learns that Chris has sabotaged her career--and realizes their relationship is not at all what she believed. Driven by what he mistakes as love for Tessa, Chris has ensured that...

A teacher in England abandons the traditional curriculum of education in dealing with a class of students rejected by other schools