A Cutting Room / Classroom Comparison

"Although editors develop their own preferences, which they may repeat from film to film and which seem to constitute unique styles, how much really is 'individual' and how much is due to the director's own style and what the film itself requires?" (Oldham, 1995: 188)

While many of us in the classroom might consider ourselves directors, I would argue that teachers are instead editors, subject to the directors' demands. Connecting with Oldham's quote, teachers, like editors, develop pedagogical preferences, instructional patterns that they carry from classroom to classroom. Rules and routines, scope and sequence selections, themes and motifs, lesson delivery and assessments are just some of the elements of education subject to the style of the editor (educator) in charge. Of course, some of those choices are influenced by the producers (federal, state, or district officials), who not only hold the purse strings but also play a role in personnel procurement, placement, and supervision.

Who really makes the decisions, though? Or, perhaps a better question to ask, whose style dictates decision making? In our classrooms, I think the students are the directors. It is their "style" that must be satisfied. As the teacher edits, tailoring the educational experience, it is the requirements raised by students' individual needs that tend to be taken into account.

I think it is these student-directed experiences or experiences edited for the edification of the "director" that are most compelling. When the oratory, optical options, and open-ended opportunities are carefully orchestrated the experience is elevated from ordinary to Oscar quality.