James Franco is now teaching high school because of course he is
Everyone’s favorite Freaks and Geeks alumnus and great-at-both-comedy-and-drama actor, James Franco, is no stranger to higher education. Since 2006, he has attended UCLA, Columbia University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Brooklyn College, Warren Wilson College, Yale University, and the Rhode Island School of Design. He has studied filmmaking, English, creative writing (including poetry), and more. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia, and is currently an English PhD student at Yale. Oh, and he finds time to act in tons of great movies.
Aside from taking college courses at basically every school in the country (and quite possibly using a Time-Turner to do so), Franco has also taught them; in fact, he taught film and English at UCLA, USC, NYU, and CalArts. And now, according to his Instagram, Franco is taking his love for education even closer to home – and the source – by teaching a film course at his alma mater, Palo Alto High School.
In conjunction with his former high-school journalism teacher Esther Wojcicki, Franco will teach the workshop for five hours one Sunday a month beginning this Sunday, Sept. 13 and running for eight sessions. His 24 lucky students will work in three groups of eight to produce a film Franco penned the script for himself, with each group focusing on a different “episode” of the script.
According to Wojcicki, Franco is in it for the right reasons, saying he’s passionate about genuine, project-based learning and education in general. “I think that that’s his motivation – he wants to show (that) it can actually be done, to other schools around the county (that) people don’t have to wait around for new legislation or more classroom buildings or whatever,” she said. “It can be done now.” Can’t get much better than encouraging words from a former high-school teacher.
The free course is open to students in grades 9 through 12. Applications are being accepted up until midnight on Sept. 10, so don’t hesitate! And if you’re one of the lucky teenagers who gets a spot, know that we are all extremely jealous and expecting you to ask him whether there’s an equivalent course for long-since-graduated adults opening anytime soon. No pressure.
(Image via Instagram)
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