I want a teacher to react to bad behavior, not ignore it until someone’s face gets cut in half. I don’t think that’s unrealistic.
You want a guy who isn’t even a teacher yet (remember he’s not even going to be accredited until next year) who is put into a brand new and overwhelming situation to not act overwhelmed and stunned?
I could see your point if it was posited that all the teachers are helpless but that clearly wasn’t the case. Cut the show and Prezbo some slack.
No, I won’t cut them slack. The man was murder police. He has dealt with violent situations before. Stressed and overwhelmed does not mean do NOTHING. A kid calls another kid a bitch, you say nothing? Kid gets her face slashed, you just stand there? Having seen people shot, beaten, all kinds of stuff? We haven’t seen Prez as a shrinking violet who passively sits by and lets shit happen to him. Why would he be now? For the sake of showing how bad the kids are? It doesn’t work for me.
I hold *The Wire * to a higher standard than most other TV shows. I wish they weren’t showing the stereotypical new teacher lameness. I don’t think what I want is unrealistic. And I live middle school every day, so I’m not sure why you’re in a position to tell me it is.
Prez was never murder police.
Also, I have two good friends, both eminently tough and capable, who absolutely fell to pieces – I mean could not keep it together – during their first couple of weeks teaching elementary school (in South Central and the South Bronx, respectively). They rock now, of course; kids love 'em.
How could there not be a massive learning curve?
Apparently Ruby lives it everyday and other people’s experiences mean nothing.
You’re right, he wasn’t murder police, but he did see all manner of crazy shit in the street. He was known for being a wild card, too. And a bunch of teenagers stun him to silence continuously? It doesn’t work for me.
Were your friends cops before they taught elementary school? Did they stand idly by while a girl got assaulted? Then how does it apply to Prez’s situation? He could have been ineffectual, that I could have accepted, but he did NOTHING. Over and over.
Can that be OK, you know, a different opinion?
Is there any particular reason why you are being so hostile and ad hominem in a thread about a TV show? I’m not talking about you or attacking you-- I’m talking about the writers of The Wire. Relax.
He was hardly ever on the street.
OK, you win. The Wire is the perfect show. Prez’s reactions were completely believable to me in every way. He never saw any action, he was not really a cop at all, and doing nothing in the classroom and not even getting through one math problem in a 30+ minute period is totally realistic. I am convinced, I abandoned all my previous criticisms in the face of your superior opinion.
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
Later.
Yeah, don’t forget, he’s Maj. Valchek’s son-in-law. He led a rather “sheltered” life as a police, helped by his family connections. He was no McNulty, Herc or Carver.
HAH… the person who I suggested cut the character and the show some slack who proceeded to tirade about it tells me to relax. I like jokes.
Moderator speaketh: Let’s keep this civil. It is possible for two different people to have two completely different reactions to the same show – believable to one, not to another. Lots of factors can lead to those different reactions, including personal past experiences and even viewing conditions – I didn’t like one show that most others did, partly because I watched it while in hospital.
One learns more about the show (and oneself) by discussing the different viewpoints frankly and openly, without hostility. without aggressiveness or defensiveness. That’s what Cafe Society discussion is all about.
There’s no right and wrong answers to “is this fictional situation believable? meaningful?” It is perfectly reasonable to hold different views. It’s fiction.
Push, you made a comment about Ruby, not about the show, and that’s out of line. Ruby, relax; your opinions are based on your experiences and others can differ without being wrong-headed.
Back to discussion.
PS - This is a pretty minor tiff, so I’m not recording it in the Moderator’s Secret Record.
I don’t think people who liked the show are wrongheaded. Hell, I liked the show. I love the show. I think they are doing a great job representing how the kids would be with a non-reactive rookie white ex-police teacher. I can see why the writers had that ep go as it did, and it is very common for TV shows and movies to show a new teacher (non)react that way. But I guess I expected more from *The Wire * and from the character of Prez.
Push, my ranting comes from the fact that the show is touching on an integral part of my life. I feel strongly about how teachers and schools are represented in the media, and I thought they’d do something more interesting with Prez as a teacher. (Maybe they still will-- I have not abandoned hope for that). Surely you can understand this? Thus, my tirade, which was in no way meant as an attack on any of the posters in this thread. I hope we can discuss the show in the future, even if I didn’t like aspects of it, without ugliness ensuing. Thanks.
The problem I think comes with your view of Prez versus everyone else’s view of him.
Prez is the perennial fuck-up. Let’s look at how well he did as a police office.
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He shot up his car with his own service weapon and claimed that it was a sniper. Somehow thought that Ballistics wouldn’t catch on.
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Ended up in the dead-end Casualty division instead of going to jail, only by virtue of being Valcheck’s son-in-law.
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His Lt. thought that even that was too good a posting, and dumped him in Daniel’s squad with the other dregs.
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Accidentally discharges his weapon because he forgot the one in the chamber while showing it off.
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Escalates a bad situation and pistol whips a kid and blinding him. Even Carver asked him what the hell he was doing.
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Meets the kid again, and cant look him in the eye. Goes running to Daniels.
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When Valchek takes him away from the niche that he found, he cold-cocks him.
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Kills an undercover officer while trying to assist.
He was never good at anything he did. The only thing he was good at he ended up losing.
I think the storyline is going in the direction that teaching kids will end up being a niche he’s good at. However to think he will do well right off the bat, because the scene where the new teacher flounders is too predictible and not ‘worthy’ of the writers, is unrealistic
I think you’re missing one thing, which is that Prez was actually quite good at working with Freamon on the information-tracking non-gun-waving side of things.
I do agree, though, that there’s no reason for Prez not to be totally flustered and just freeze up when presented with what he’s being presented with.
To be fair, Prez was very good at his off-the-street role in Major Crimes. He originally cracked the pager codes, was first to be able to decipher the street slang on the taped wire conversations (by listening to “Brown Sugar”), and he was the one who traced Bodie’s discarded “burner” cell phone all the way to its source, found out all calls were made along I-95, and found Bodie’s grandmother’s number.
My favorite scene of the season so far was when Bubbles recognized Prez at the school, and gave him a WTF look.
I guess I should have made it clearer that he found his place in the world when he ended up in Major Crimes.
Let’s not forget that Prez no longer has the gun and badge to give him extra courage. He’s truly on his own for the first time in his career, and it makes perfect sense to me that he’s floundering now that he has to rely solely on his wits.
(Not to turn this into a pile-on, Rubystreak, but I’m just not ready to accuse the Wire of lazy writing.) 
I’m hoping Prez will eventually find a niche and become a good teacher, although I give him 50/50 odds of failing miserably. Some of those kids are beyond help.
Thanks, Phantom Dennis. I haven’t given up on *The Wire * nor am I even saying it’s anything but the best cop show ever. I guess I wanted to see something different from the rookie teacher. I will go so far as to say, a little of the crazy Prez anger and wildness would have served him better than his deer in the headlights act. In fact, I was secretly hoping Prez would throw a desk or something, scaring the shit out of the kids. Not that that would have been professional or anything, but it would have been vintage Prez and might have gotten him one iota of respect to build on.
But hey, it’s still a great show. I might be a little too close to the subject matter to be objective (ya think?)
There is no reason for Prez not to be a fuck up. None at all. And first time teachers will universally and inevitably fuck up. It’s expected, and it’s normal. It’s the WAY he fucked up that I found out of character and disappointing. In the list posted of all the things he did wrong, they were always him acting wild and out of control. We never saw him, under duress, freeze up and get all quiet, even when dealing with minors who he should have just left alone. I wanted to see Prez be Prez. I think, despite being off the wall, that Prez might have made an impact. Now, he’s just a scared little white man who can’t say Boo.
Does this make sense to you guys? Not so much that Prez would fuck up, not that it was so hard to believe a first time teacher would handle things wrong, but the combination of how Prez was depicted AND the new teacher freezing up cliche, that bothered me.
I wonder if they really do throw completely untrained teachers with no cert, classroom experience, or support, into the classroom like that in Baltimore. In NY, you cannot be hired without a certification.