Sarah Harte: Entitled parents need to stop badgering teachers out of hours

How does it feel to be a teacher right now? Taking a wild guess, there’s some who would answer: Overburdened, underpaid, and underappreciated

Oscar Nominee Paul Giamatti who plays the teacher in The Holdovers dedicated his Golden Globe win to teachers. Watching the movie will leave you with a renewed respect for the profession.

Last weekend, I went to see a movie called The Holdovers. If you were doing an elevator pitch for the movie, it would be something like ‘a cranky teacher in an elite New England boarding school supervises a group of boys over the Christmas holidays with heart-warming results.’ The movie focuses on the relationship between one caring but curmudgeonly history teacher and a troubled 17-year-old boy. Set in 1970, there is a nostalgic, elegiac tone to proceedings, but it is funny and moving in equal parts.

Oscar Nominee Paul Giamatti who plays the teacher in The Holdovers will be up against Cillian Murphy for best actor in the Academy Awards in March. Recently, Giamatti dedicated his Golden Globe win to teachers, saying: “We’ve got to respect them. They do a good thing. It’s a tough job.”