‘Beyond the Blackboard’: Teachers Can Be Heroes

This installment of ‘Movies for Teens and Young Adults’ depicts how caring can work miracles.

Stacey Bess (Emily VanCamp) shows the importance of good teachers, in “Beyond the Blackboard.” MovieStillsDB

Set in 1987, “Beyond the Blackboard” dramatizes the real-life heroism of an award-winning elementary school teacher from Utah, Stacey Bess (Emily VanCamp). A young mother of two, who idealized teaching, Stacey takes a job in a “school with no name” in Salt Lake City. The children there are neglected, homeless, truant, and mutinous. They are under the temperamental care of parents or guardians in a makeshift shelter that’s more like a dilapidated warehouse than a school.

Stacey Bess (Emily VanCamp) teaches in a dilapidated classroom with no supplies, in “Beyond the Blackboard.” MovieStillsDB