You probably have a favourite on-screen music teacher. Whether that's Richard Dreyfuss in Mr Holland's Opus, Jack Black as Dewey Finn in School Of Rock, or even Julie Andrews's Maria in The Sound Of Music.
There's also the intimidating band-leader Terence Fletcher in Whiplash, played by J.K. Simmons.
Australian researchers have been analysing portrayals like these and say they have some problems.
Not only do they help shape our perception of real-life music teachers, they might also influence how many people consider taking up the profession.
On-screen portrayals of teachers are not that realistic, Hugh Gundlach from the University of Melbourne recently told The Music Show.
But it's something he and other researchers are looking into because films can "create a 'cultural reality' that is more powerful than the actual reality."
The tropes of on-screen music teachers
Dr Gundlach and his colleagues have just published a paper which analyses more than 50 school music teachers in films released between 1940 and 2025.
They found a number of consistent on-screen tropes that make good drama, but aren't always helpful when applied to music teachers in real life.
One is that music teachers are often depicted as failed musicians.
Mr Holland became a teacher so he could work on his symphony, while Dewey Finn in School Of Rock turned to substitute teaching after getting kicked out of his band.
Another common trope is for teachers to be placed in hostile schools in low socio-economic areas, where they become heroes.
They embody the idea that music can save these poor kids, according to Dr Gundlach.
"We see another trope where this tiny little innovation or change over a short period of time yields a massive result and a change in the students," Dr Gundlach says.
Many of the teachers portrayed in films get fired as a result of their teaching methods.
There's also a trope in these films about a special student who gets a lot of attention at the expense of others, which doesn't reflect best teaching practice.
One stand-out teacher, and not in a good way, is Terence Fletcher from Whiplash.
Strict and mercurial, students continually have to earn their place in his high-level studio band. Students get kicked out of the band whenever Fletcher feels displeased by their performance.
The problems with music teacher tropes
On-screen drama may portray teachers as larger than life characters, but it has real-world impact.
More than 80 per cent of on-screen music teachers included in the paper are white, and 60 per cent of them are male. Their average age is 46 years old.
"We need all sorts of people to become teachers today in Australia," says Rhiannon Simpson, a co-author of the paper.
"We want people of colour. We want women. We want people of varied backgrounds who don't see [teaching] as a fallback profession."
Many of the films create conflicts between classical music and popular music, something the researchers say might not be an actual problem in the classrooms.
"We acknowledge that films have to tell a story, but we think the absence of realism and perpetuating some cliches and stereotypes here can be dangerous," Dr Gundlach says.
Dr Simpson singles out School Of Rock to illustrate how fictional teachers influence the real world.
"A lot of teachers that we've spoken to say this is the film that inspired them to go to university and become a teacher," she says.
Ironically, Finn had no teaching qualifications. He became a teacher so he could pay rent and use his students to re-start his career as a rock musician.
"About 12 per cent of the films we studied [feature] music teachers with no teaching qualification at all," Dr Simpson says.
"That has implications for the de-professionalisation of the teaching field."
Fortunately for the would-be teachers Finn inspired, his teaching methods are grounded in solid foundations.
"There's a lot of research that says allowing the students to play music before unpacking all of the theory is a well-known, well-established, and well-researched pedagogical practice," Dr Simpson says.
The researchers note there are some positive trends towards more diverse representations in films released over the last five years.
What on-screen music teachers don't show
Ed Le Brocq, music teacher and co-host of ABC Classic's Music Class says that sadly, "moments of grand inspiration are a lot fewer in real life than in films."
Instead, music teachers spend a lot of time listening to out-of-tune playing and celebrating the tiny achievements students make.
"You have to have a huge amount of energy, and you have to have a huge amount of patience, and you find 1,000 different ways to explain the same thing so that the student will finally get it," he says.
Despite the problems with the plot, Le Brocq admits he loves School Of Rock. But instead of every music lesson being incredibly thrilling like what's shown in the film, "sometimes the most important music lesson is quite a boring one."
What's missing from the films, Le Brocq says, is that "teachers have to be like a musical rock for students by being calm, consistent and just be there."
Australia still grapples with teacher shortages, including music teachers.
Even though the real job is a lot less glamorous than its on-screen counterpart, Le Brocq says it's a rewarding one.
"The best thing about being a music teacher is seeing a student getting to know themselves better through music, note by note."
Get the latest classical music stories direct to your inbox
