Top 8 Movies Where Education Changes the World

If there are two things we know to be certain, it is that a firm education has the power to change the world, and that people enjoy movies. So, the success of the logical pairing of the two should come as no surprise. Here are eight movies which prove that education changes the world, that inspire any watcher to believe it.

1. Freedom Writers (2007)

Freedom Writers is a film about a young teacher who is faced with the challenge of convincing a group of at-risk high-schoolers that learning can be rewarding, rather than a punishment. Bigger than that challenge, though, is the school’s perception of these learners, dubbing them all incapable of attaining an education. She introduces them to literature that they actually relate to, and we watch the power of quality education inspire and inform their attitude towards the world.

2. Dead Poet’s Society (1989)

Welton Academy, an elite prep school who pride themselves on the calibre of their students and curriculum, is turned upside down when the new English teacher, John Keating, decides that learning is best facilitated by breaking away from structure and rigidity. The film cracks open a world in which children face unfathomable amounts of pressure from the adults in their lives, and shows that their worlds can be changed for the better with the right approach to learning,” says Vincenzo M. Brooks, a reviewer at Essay Writing Service.

3. School of Rock

Another film that flips the notion of a traditional education. Dewey Finn, desperately needing a job, decides to pose as his friend and be a substitute teacher at an elite elementary school. Unfortunately for him – and it seems the children, at first – he knows nothing except music. So, he starts a class band. School of Rock embodies what it means to learn and grow, showing that education is best received when enjoyed, as well as the impact it can have on peoples’ lives.

4. The Breakfast Club (1985)

The Breakfast Club shows that educating oneself about the lives of others, and how being more accepting of people within a school environment can change everyone for the better. We see this occur when five high-schoolers with very different personalities are forced to spend the day in detention together.

5. Good Will Hunting (1997)

Will Hunting is a janitor at MIT with, on the surface, no prospect of a future. Except that he’s got the IQ of a genius. With the right guidance and education from the mentors and intellectuals in his life, we see the way that an education can motivate someone, inspire them, and change their lives for the better.

6. An Education

Jenny is a young girl with a bright future. She seems to have it all. She is kind, pretty, and has the marks to go to Oxford, where she wants to read English. But she doesn’t feel like she has lived, so when an older man enters her life and introduces her to art, theatre and sex, her life takes a whole new spin. But we learn through it all the value of an education, and the way it positively effect a life.

7. Mona Lisa’s Smile

Wellesley College, 1953, has certain expectations of its all-female students: they behave like the prestigious young ladies they are, and conform to the outdated societal norms that hold them back. But Katherine Watson arrives to change that, showing through her art history classes that world change and improvement comes from an education, and not by allowing the world to dominate you because of your gender.

8. A Beautiful Mind

John Forbes Nash Jr was a mathematical genius, making ground-breaking discoveries at the beginning of his educational journey. But life got in the way, and instead we learn of the tragic, painful beauty that can come from someone confronting their problems, and the value a balanced education can have on someone’s life.

Whether it’s through weeping your way through the ending, or that tingling feeling of upliftment after the hero triumphs over adversity, a movie about education really drives home the message of how important learning is. Better yet, these do so while still providing excellent entertainment value.