Spanish teacher fired for showing "Virgin" film

[Barb]

This has "Wtf?!" written all over it:

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A school has decided that showing the R-rated movie “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” is not an appropriate high school Spanish lesson.

Fernando Del Pino was suspended with pay Tuesday for showing the movie to students at Lexington’s Tates Creek High School a day earlier, said Lisa Deffendall, spokeswoman for Fayette County Public Schools. He resigned Thursday.

Del Pino, who was hired in August, said he decided to show the film after a student brought it to class and said it “was very funny,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Linkage

I just...what? What does this film have to do with Spanish class?

 

[Argy]

Welcome to high school. At least a third of the things I had to do then had nothing to do with the class at hand.

Want some examples? Origami in Psychology class. Watching Spirited Away in AP U.S. Government. The list goes on.

By the way, you should change the title of this topic, as it isn't exactly accurate. He resigned, which is very different from being fired.

But hey, that is a funny movie. It's one of my favorites.

 

[pikapal]

That's the way my schooling was for me too the teachers were sometimes to lazy to teach and I'd end up watching movies that had nothing to do with the class I was in.

 

[Coffee]

Um... ;

All I have to say is:

¿Es verdad que si usted no lo utiliza, usted lo pierde?

 

[Doctor Oak]

At the end of term it was pretty usual for teachers to simply let us relax and on vids and DVDs etc as all the work for the term had been done.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case here, and it's pretty dumb to be suspended over it.

 

[Nekusagi]

Yeah, but what kind of Spanish teacher shows their students a raunchy comedy?

Though I have watched a lot of good movies in class before. Gattaca in Biology, The Princess Bride in Journalism, Pay It Forward in Social Justice... the only movie I think I've seen in class that would give the administration in my school issues is when my Journalism class watched All the Presidents' Men, which drops the F-bomb about 11 times (we counted)

EDIT: Although in the "Pointless films in Spanish Class" Department, last year we did watch Napoleon Dynamite. Our defense was Pedro.

 

[Barb]

I think the main problem was the film itself. An R-rated movie being shown to teenagers (some of whom are probably too young to go see it in theaters) isn't going to go over well in an ultraconservative state like Kentucky.

And...origami in Psychology class? Is this the new Rorshach test?

 

[Kthleen]

¿Es verdad que si usted no lo utiliza, usted lo pierde?

Oui, c'est vrai. Je sais qu'on peut oublier sa langue maternelle si on ne l'utilise pas. Les muscles et le savoir s'atrophient sans utilisation.

I didn't get fully pointless movies, that I can remember. In high school in Govt., we saw Twelve Angry Men and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. During one of my French teachers' final year, she showed a lot of movies, but they were all in French. In Japanese, we got Grave of the Fireflies... in English....

So the guy showed an R-rated movie in school because it "was very funny"? People really need to think more. He must have been told about the rules regarding showing videos, right?

What does this film have to do with Spanish class?

If it was shown in Spanish, it could have taught the students stuff they won't (normally) teach in school but that some people want to know, such as curse words and drug terms! (At least going by a vague synopsis; I've never seen it.)

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

Kentucky's Bible Belt, right? I have not seen "The 40-Year Old Virgin", and I find it hard to believe that it's R-Rated, but my tenth grade class saw and had to analyze "Schindler's List" here in California. There's assuredly more sex in that movie than in a movie about a virgin, that's for sure. ;

...

Also, I'm not sure if you lot are familiar with Spanish Classes, but teachers usually pick movies students have seen and play them in Spanish; the students then are responsible for taking notes/writing down phrases or whatnot. It's exposure to the language. My teacher never went so far as to show an R-Rated movie, but we saw boatloads of PG-13 material.

 

[pikapal]

Oui, c'est vrai. Je sais qu'on peut oublier sa langue maternelle si on ne l'utilise pas. Les muscles et le savoir s'atrophient sans utilisation.

I didn't get fully pointless movies, that I can remember. In high school in Govt., we saw Twelve Angry Men and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. During one of my French teachers' final year, she showed a lot of movies, but they were all in French. In Japanese, we got Grave of the Fireflies... in English....

So the guy showed an R-rated movie in school because it "was very funny"? People really need to think more. He must have been told about the rules regarding showing videos, right?

If it was shown in Spanish, it could have taught the students stuff they won't (normally) teach in school but that some people want to know, such as curse words and drug terms! (At least going by a vague synopsis; I've never seen it.)

In my French class we watched Dumb and Dumber in French. I guess we were learning something because it was in French. And we watch another movie a French comedy from France called "Aunt Danielle"

 

[Barb]

Kentucky's Bible Belt, right? I have not seen "The 40-Year Old Virgin", and I find it hard to believe that it's R-Rated, but my tenth grade class saw and had to analyze "Schindler's List" here in California. There's assuredly more sex in that movie than in a movie about a virgin, that's for sure. ;

Yes, Kentucky's part of the Bible Belt, as far as the definition goes. But the movie is a sex comedy, so I'm sure there's more sex in "Virgin" than in a serious film about the Holocaust like "Schindler's List."

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

Yes, Kentucky's part of the Bible Belt, as far as the definition goes. But the movie is a sex comedy, so I'm sure there's more sex in "Virgin" than in a serious film about the Holocaust like "Schindler's List."

"R" ratings attempt to classify a large category. One the one hand, we have something like Saving Privan Ryan for violence, Zoot Suit for language, and The Joy Luck Club for both/sex. Schindler's List had only a couple brief scenes (couple minutes at most), but they're visual, not implied as in most Romantic/Sex Comedies. Furthermore, Young Adam is rated "R"...and it's little more than "Softcore Porn".

My guess is that critics secretly enjoyed "The Forty Year Old Virgin" but didn't want kids to watch it. Makes sense, really, but are High School kids really so immature as to not stomach such? No; it's the parents.

 

[Barb]

Basically, yes. I'm sure the kids laughed at the film but it was the parents who complained.