''The Rubber Room'' is a 2010
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
about the
reassignment centers
A reassignment center (also known as a rubber room) is a type of holding facility administered by the New York City Department of Education for teachers accused of misconduct while awaiting resolution of their misconduct cases. , the city had ...
run by the
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...
, which the filmmakers claim exist in various forms in school districts across the United States. Allegedly intended to serve as temporary holding facilities for teachers accused of various kinds of misconduct who are awaiting an official hearing, these reassignment centers have become known amongst the "exiled" teachers subculture as "rubber rooms," so named after the
padded cell
A padded cell is a cell in a psychiatric hospital with cushions lining the walls. The padding is an attempt to prevent patients from hurting themselves by hitting their head (or other bodily parts) on the hard surface of the walls. In most case ...
s of psychiatric hospitals.
Film content
The film documents the daily routines of teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence. Several days, weeks, months, or even years are spent in these "
Kafkaesque
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...
"
rubber rooms waiting for some kind of resolution; the filmmakers estimate that the average wait time is three years, but cited cases lasting as long as ten years. During this time in "exile," the teachers receive their full pay and benefit packages at the cost of up to 65 million dollars per year to the city,
spending each day reading, playing cards, balancing checkbooks, sleeping, or simply staring blankly at the walls. Interviewed teachers from the rubber room describe the high tensions that develop between teachers angry at their inexplicable situations that curiously lead to a "prison-like" environment in which teachers largely separate themselves into fiercely territorial
clique
A clique ( AusE, CanE, or ), in the social sciences, is a group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popular ...
s, sometimes even resulting in physical altercations.
The rubber room is shown as a way that administrators are able to be rid of teachers by circumventing the notoriously difficult process of removing a
tenured teacher. Reasons that teachers are sent to the rubber room range from accusations as extreme as physical and sexual abuse of students to as minor as excessive tardiness
or even simple personality conflicts with administrators, and yet these groups of teachers are shown to be lumped together in the same situation with egregiously delayed hearings, often without evidence of any misconduct, sometimes even going without knowledge of what the alleged misconduct actually is, for up to three years.
Furthermore, the film shows some students boasting about having learned to take advantage of this system after realizing that they have the power to remove teachers almost at will. This upset in the balance of power, they show, can have drastic effects on the teachers' ability to do their jobs and effectively teach while maintaining order in the classrooms.
Making of the film
In an interview with MSNBC's
Joe Scarborough
Charles Joseph Scarborough (; born April 9, 1963) is an American television host, attorney, political commentator, and former politician who is the co-host of '' Morning Joe'' on MSNBC with his wife Mika Brzezinski. He previously hosted ''Scarbo ...
and
Mika Brzezinski
Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski Scarborough (; pl, Brzezińska; born May 2, 1967) is an American talk show host, liberal political commentator, and author who currently co-hosts MSNBC's weekday morning broadcast show ''Morning Joe''. She was forme ...
, filmmaker and former New York City teacher Jeremy Garrett explained that they intended their film to be an
exposé
Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to:
News sources
* Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism
* '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website
Film and TV Film
* ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film
* ''Exposed'' (1932 ...
on not only the excessive waste that is associated with maintaining the rubber rooms, but also to highlight the "shifting landscape in education," modern students' lack of respect for teachers and how it affects their ability to teach, and mismanagement of the educational system in general.
During
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
, Garrett was arrested for
trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land.
Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding ...
ing while
covertly filming the events of daily life inside the rubber room.
According to Garrett, the arrest came after the Department of Education learned of his intent to collect footage inside the rubber rooms for the exposé.
The film was profiled in a 2008 segment of ''
This American Life
''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internation ...
'' with
Ira Glass
Ira Jeffrey Glass (; born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality. He is the host and producer of the radio and television series ''This American Life'' and has participated in other NPR programs, including ''Morning Edition'', ...
called "Human Resources," which related various human resources problems in the country.
In 2010, another documentary about the failures of the
American public education, ''
Waiting for "Superman"
''Waiting for "Superman"'' is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. The film criticizes the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be ...
,'' licensed footage shot by Five Boroughs Productions for ''The Rubber Room'' to use in ''Waiting for "Superman's" short segment on the reassignment centers.
On April 12, 2010, the New York Department of Education (DoE) announced that it would be closing down its reassignment centers, facing pressures from the public and the teachers' union.
Release and reception
Due in part to media attention on the subject including the release of ''Waiting for "Superman"'' earlier in the year, as well as the recent settlement between the
United Federation of Teachers
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and 17,000 paraprofessional educators in the union, as well as about 54,000 ...
(UFT) and DoE, the film was released to three full audiences on April 16, 2010, with largely positive reactions from the audience and critics in attendance.
References
External links
*
*
''This American Life'' interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubber Room
2010 films
2010 documentary films
American documentary films
Documentary films about American politics
Documentary films about education in the United States
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language documentary films