Profu'/Teach (2019) - full transcript
A peculiar math teacher from Transilvania is becoming a local Don Quijote when he quits the conventional educational system and opens a private lectures office in his own two-room apartment...
foodval.com - stop by if you're interested in the nutritional composition of food
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"I dream of a school where
nothing is actually taught,
and where young men could come to free
themselves from the tyranny of teaching."
Ulmu village, Brăila county, Romania
Sound
Editing
Producer
A film by
Auntie Aneta needs a cane to walk,
but she's still holding strong.
- Hadn’t she fallen down the stairs...
- Yeah, it would have been better.
- Are you taking her in for winter?
- No, she is staying at home.
- Does your mom need help with the corn?
- No, it's not ripe yet.
- Are you going out today?
- No, we'll be around the house.
Taking care of the grapevine.
- And... how about the kids?
- No.
I've divorced and I'm moving on.
How about you?
- What will you do with your houses?
- I'll sell them.
I'll empty the bucket using a shovel.
Otherwise I'll burn my fingers.
- Take more from the right side.
- I know what I'm doing. Leave me alone.
I'm 50 already!
Eight.
You’ve put too much,
so they're already nine!
Further down the road is
my primary school.
It's the second time I come here,
because my parents were separated.
It's tied with a string...
He used to sleep in this bed.
Look, a pair of worn out pants.
And a lamp...
This should have been
my inheritance from my father.
Look at all those bottles.
He drank himself to death.
My father never took any interest in me,
so why should I have come here?
That is why I've always been very careful
with kids that have family issues.
Because I was one of them.
Most of the social problems in Romania
derive from one main issue:
the quality of education has been
declining from one year to the next.
Not to mention examples
of the kind of schooling
received by the people
who are ruling this country.
How could one stimulate the kids
to start learning
when they see
who calls the shots in this country?
We ask for quality...
That’s impossible!
We're all shocked
by what's happening in education.
I don't regret having left the national
education system ten years ago, at 44.
When I figured out what was happening,
I said:
"Mates, you're one idiot short.
Do whatever you like.
I do what I can, if I want to,
but I'm out of here
because I've seen what comes of this."
TEACH
Bistrița, Romania
Grab that table and bring it here.
Get that bench over there.
Push it back.
Push back the other one, too.
Good.
Move it a little more.
- Good morning.
- Have you ridden your skateboard again?
Yes, I have. The board glides so nicely
on the pavement!
That stupid thing?
Aren't you afraid to slip
and have a car run over you?
I'm not afraid.
Hey! You're here too?
- Do you know each other?
- From school.
Who has just come in?
Rus and Ignătuș.
- Who?
- Rus and Ignătuș.
- A new student.
- Hi!
- Whom do you know here?
- No one.
Move a little, Radu.
Take out a page, please.
Give me your school notebooks,
to see what you’ve learned so far.
- What are you having trouble with?
- Geometry.
- Vectors?
- Yes.
We used to learn that in the 11th grade.
You learn it in the 9th grade!
I skipped one class and then
I found it impossible to catch up.
Give me the book, please.
The one you’re working on.
That's the book edited by the Didactic
and Pedagogic Publishing House.
When I was your age,
I learned vectors in the 11th grade.
Now they teach it in the 9th grade.
The head of the Mathematics department
at the Ministry of Education,
whom I don’t know personally,
is called Dumitru Săvulescu.
He has written more books
than many packs of toilet paper
or toilet paper manufacturers
in this country!
I would ask him only one thing:
I would ask him to choose one grade
from the 5th to the 12th
and one discipline of Mathematics.
And I wold ask him to tell me the order
in which he would teach the lessons.
That’s all I would ask him.
And if he gets confused,
I’m not surprised by what you know
and how your books are written.
Now, get to work!
I'll be damned!
Two times ten is one hundred...
How the hell
have you come up with that?
How much is two times ten, pal?
I'm crossing that out.
Oh, boy...
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!
The square root of two...
God, give me strength!
What the hell is this exercise asking?
Isn’t it perhaps “rationalize”?
Get that book here! It only
dulls your minds, unfortunately.
What publisher is that?
“Booby”?
The Mathematicians Club.
- Who is the author?
Some guy from the club.
The head of the Mathematics department
at the Ministry of Education, Săvulescu!
He’s been a chief executive
ever since he was born!
You placed it under the same square root,
but without rationalizing it.
Fantastic!
Such a highly scientific workbook!
If you put it on a beehive,
it turns to dust in one year.
- What year were you born in?
- ’68.
Four years younger than me.
What's happening now is mind-boggling.
Ours was proper schooling!
I still use our own school books.
The way I see it, Math is the same,
it hasn't changed.
I learned the old fashioned way
and I’m sticking to the same methods.
Right.
Come here.
This is good, this is not good.
You changed the sign here,
haven’t you?
The same type of exercise,
from here to here.
Right.
You can’t say you don’t know this,
but you're missing practice.
- Who’s that?
- Olinca.
- Olinca?
- Yes.
I’m asking him
if he has brought any food.
No one has brought me
anything warm to eat.
What have you brought for me?
Let me see, does it have any meat?
I would eat some meat.
Hand over some meat!
Put it here. I’m hungry!
Or put it on the table.
- It’s cold.
- Shame on you!
Put it between your legs to warm it up!
He was too lazy to warm it up for me.
- I didn’t have time.
- I’ll eat your ears up!
Do I look like I have time
to warm this up?
Put it on the oven.
- It's meat roll.
- Pal, roll is best eaten cold!
Let me eat now!
Murar, you’re their teacher!
I need to eat now.
My vision has totally gone black!
Last time I ate at 2 o’clock.
And it’s already 8.00!
You all went home and had lunch.
Believe me, I am STARVING.
I’m hungry. You can have
my leftovers if you want.
I get to eat first.
I’ve had nothing all day.
Mihai, cover for me.
I’m as hungry as a wolf.
If you are hungry, you can have some.
That’s charity food.
Oh, you are eating, too.
Name another colleague
to be the teacher.
Man.
Man and Țâra, check the others' work.
I get half, you get half.
- I don’t know how to solve that.
- I’ll show you.
You cut a piece, I’ll cut another.
Amadeo, what are you doing?
Putting on a show?
Your tail is frozen.
- Positive and constant.
- Is it a big fault if I write like that?
You might get penalized for it.
Or maybe not at all.
It depends on their mood.
So, this one has to be a polynomial.
Cosine, sine plus polynomial.
The same function
shouldn't come up twice.
Each trigonometric function
should have a polynomial in front.
Hey! This one is squared.
What’s this minus doing here?
I copied it from here.
Minus 14...
Seven squared is 14!
Fuck off!
Are you cursing me?
Seven squared is 14!
Of course he can't solve it.
The colleague on your left,
who's in the 5th grade, knows better.
Little lady, how much is 7 squared?
- 49.
- He wrote down 14!
Join hands, she's studying powers now.
She's learning that for the first time.
You're an old timer
and you still don't know the answers.
Are you hungry?
Who's responsible with hunger?
Anything in the fridge?
You get your hands on anything
in there, you show no mercy.
I’ve tortured myself for one hour and
you're the one complaining about food.
Give me a fucking break!
I’ve been here for three hours.
You’ve been here for one hour only.
You're three times smarter than me.
Give me your notebook!
Ivan, we’ve done
the logarithmic equations, right?
- When are you coming back?
- Tomorrow.
Take off your coat
and start with the sequences!
Provide her values.
At least to get an idea…
Don't be afraid
of the School of Engineering.
It’s a fine faculty.
I’d rather you came
when you’re done with the classes.
I’ll be chatting around here
till 9 or 10 p.m.
When you're done with school
call me and come here!
- Thank you!
- Take care.
Go figure! She’s in a Philology class,
has not studied a lot of Maths,
and she wants to enter the Tech Institute.
I just need to encourage her.
So many kids drop out!
I’ll stop writing that down now.
- Not today, but tomorrow you do it.
- Yeah, sure!
Please, don’t get smart with me!
Why didn’t you say it
in the first place?
Look into my eyes!
I knew how to solve it when they printed
the solutions to the handbook exercises.
In my first years of teaching
I was so slyly avoiding that exercise…
No problem if you’re jittery,
don’t do it today.
Next time you come
and I’ll show you how to solve it.
Understood?
I need to get some files
out of this folder.
They're the files of kids
who only came here once.
This folder is already full.
They think I can teach them Maths
only by looking at them.
Not possible!
Let's take them in order
and get them out.
Anca... I don't know
if she'll come again.
She hasn't come since April 15.
Antofi last came on May 12.
Ardelean remains.
Bolfa last came on February 12.
David is a good kid, so is Bratan...
Lisa!
If that's how you put it,
here's my answer.
I had a kid in 12th grade and
took him in at a 5th grade level.
He worked like crazy for a year
and finished two years here
and then transferred to Cluj city,
with a 9 average at Tech school.
If the kid is willing to learn,
he'll catch up.
If that senior managed to go
from 5th to 12th grade,
you can't have a 8th grade student
not catch up the last two years. Impossible!
In time, the kid will catch up, but
I need at least a year to get him there.
I want to get him out of his gang
of friends, whom I don't like,
and introduce him to a group of kids
who like to study.
This is what I want: change his
learning pace, but his friends as well.
Hello!
I’m the mother of Bogdan Patca.
You’re here telling me about your son.
About the education system, I say,
you're fortunate if your kid gets
a primary school teacher
who does their job.
This way he gets a good start.
- How are we to know who does their job?
- I understand your concern.
The recommendations we got
were good,
but this is exactly
the problem with the current system.
You shouldn’t have to learn
at home, but at school.
He should get homework he's able to do,
not for me to have to do it for him.
I know,
I run into that as well.
This suits me
because without it,
I would be out of a job.
Right. That’s
from your perspective.
Because of them, I get work.
If not for them, what would I do?
To be honest,
that’s why we sent Bogdan to you.
In the first week of school in 5th grade,
he got homework with the Gauss method.
I learned the Gauss method too.
In 10th grade.
But he had to have his homework done.
I solved it, he copied it
in his notebook, and I told him:
"Raise your hand in class and
ask the teacher to explain it to you."
But they didn't discuss it again.
I was, God help me, 16 years old
and I barely understood it.
When you're in 5th grade, the answer for
what comes after the dots is… more dots.
Why do you think
they can’t learn in class?
Talking about that
opens a whole can of worms.
I speak very freely
about why this happens.
Take Babeș University, for example.
They have 6.500 seats
for Economics students in first year
and 40 seats
for future Maths teachers.
How does Babeș, a multicultural
university, the best in Romania,
have only 40 Maths teachers,
but 6.500 economists?
And then you take Bistrița county.
Out of 2.200 jobs available,
they fill 600 with unqualified personnel
or various types of substitutes.
More than a quarter
are staff they’re begging to stay.
Retirees who don't want to teach
anymore and substitute teachers.
That’s why.
The entire education system
is like that:
The lesson on the blackboard
should be the one in the planning,
the same as the one registered
in the class book.
The teacher says, “I’ve done my lesson.
If they didn’t get it ‒ not my problem.”
The approach is,
“I have to follow my schedule.”
Not everybody
learns at the same rate!
You can’t expect everyone
to understand a lesson in the same way.
Here are 20 students at different levels.
I know what each of them is doing.
How do I do this one?
Explain the modulus and divide by x.
I was a disciple of Constantin Noica.
I very much liked what I found
in his Philosophical Journal
and I’m sharing it with all of you
“I dream of a school system
in which nothing is taught
and the students can free themselves
from the 'Tyranny of teachers'."
To be able to ask
about anything you don’t know.
Kids come from school
with things still unclear to them.
“I don’t know.”
“You get an F.”
That’s absurd.
Here, kitty, kitty!
Andrei, you'll catch a cold.
Amadeo!
Amadeo!
Come on.
I got out of the state-owned system
because I didn't have any time to sleep.
I'd come home and
there was a crowd outside.
So I had to give something up.
The educational system here,
in Romania,
with what it asks from you,
doesn't let you do your job.
All you do is paperwork! Why not
make a portfolio for each student.
Paperwork and more paperwork!
If only you could
make a copy of the toilet paper
and add it to the portfolio
so you get a bigger stack of papers.
There is the triad
parent-teacher-student.
In the teacher-student relationship,
the kid fails because of the parent.
In the parent-student relationship,
the kid fails because
the teacher didn't do his job.
In the parent-teacher relationship,
things don't go well because
the student doesn't do his job.
And the blame is passed
from one to the other.
So we're in a triad.
The outcome, the way
all kids around the country perform,
is the result of the teacher's work
in the classroom.
And this is valid for every subject.
Like teacher, like students.
That's it.
- Raul, do come tomorrow!
- I will.
P, R, S...
- Hi!
- Hello!
- David, do you know him?
- Didn’t you use to come here at 6 a.m.?
I did.
Once, he threw your notebook
in the fire.
That’s right.
He shows up in the morning
after a night of partying.
I draw the curtains, set him up
in the bed to sleep.
I turn off both our phones
and my boy sleeps like a log.
Around 2 p.m.,
I turn the phone back on.
“Professor!”
"My boy!"
Your son? You gave him 50 bucks
and three condoms.
Your boy...
Come here and I'll show you.
I’m telling his mom,
“Come and see.”
- What’s the deal with this chair?
- I have an issue in the front.
From so much Maths,
my balls turned blue.
- How is it going this year?
- This year the kids are doing well.
Some of them study hard...
For example, him.
His mom’s working in Germany.
He’s alone at home, with nowhere to go.
With his grandparents gone,
there's nowhere else to go but here.
The clubs are closed on Christmas Eve.
But he’s not one for clubs.
He worked all summer.
He's the only kid here
who bought a high-end computer
with his own money.
This other one - his dad’s gone,
his mom needs surgery a fourth time.
Grandma’s got her mind
on her sick daughter.
Why watch them moaning and groaning?
Here he's got Maths to help him forget.
The other one
is going to be a Maths teacher.
He's got the tent up in bed
and does what he wants: study.
That’s good.
Is it good?
- Yes.
Really?
- Yes, it is.
- Do you welcome carolers?
- There's carolers here all day so, no.
I have three cats and
all town’s here caroling. Today, no.
I don’t have time to receive carolers.
That one came from Iași to study...
I got these as a gift. This one
got in first at Tech school in 2003.
He also studied in Vienna.
But look at what he writes.
From 2003 to 2011?
Five years of college, then the Master
and three years of PhD.
Look here.
I deeply thank
the one who showed me
I was better than I thought.
Good. Who’s this guy supervising?
A National Academy member.
To my teacher, Dorin V. Ioniță,
who was and is like a father to me.
Four in that class received a PhD.
I put the whip on them.
Whip them at the right time.
Make them work!
They can enjoy themselves later.
Lay a foundation for them!
This one‘s doing Maths in his pajama.
He comes first and leaves last.
Sometimes,
he leaves in the morning.
He says, “Good morning!”
when he comes and when he leaves.
Come see what’s going on.
This is Christmas, my friend.
That’s all my food.
the kids brought all of it.
For Christmas, as homework,
I have to burn all the cardboard.
I fill the house with cardboard
so it looks it's students.
It used to be full at Christmas.
Yep.
Here...
Here is something I don’t like.
And I’ll tell you why.
Leave the minus in front.
Minus and minus gives you plus.
This one derived with x is 2x.
You derive the one on the exterior last.
What was the real secret?
I sometimes ask myself that.
About the secret
to me working well with you.
If you want,
I’ll tell you after these 12 years.
You weren’t conventional at all.
No. That too,
but there’s a more important one.
We were friends.
A more important reason.
More important than this?
- … than being friends?
- Yes, the most important one.
I had you here with your whole crew.
I took in hand all your friends.
If you lied to me,
I would ask Brendea or Roșu.
You didn’t tell them to lie to me.
I knew everything you were doing.
I knew you rolled over in your car
that some shepherds wanted
to beat you up
that you killed some sheep,
stayed at a hotel, ran off the next day.
I didn't tell your mom.
You wouldn’t want her nagging you.
For me, you were just a boy,
I treated you as my own child
and didn’t scold you.
That was all.
Let us see who's done.
- Mrs. Rusu?!
- Just a second.
Bonjour!
Hello!
I'm out to buy dog food.
How about you?
They’re frozen. That’s good.
- And what’s that?
- Lungs.
Good. Cash it!
17.70 lei.
Dobrogea, land of flowers, Dobrogea…
Here’s a song about my homeland.
I was born in Brăila, so only
the Danube separated me from Dobrogea.
I'm very much in love
with the Danube river.
I'll play a nice one from home.
"Come and take me on your boat"
Boatman, I would ask you
Come and take me on your boat…
Pass me the bread.
Let me eat for five minutes.
- Do you still have food like this?
- Why?
I'm hungry.
I can't bring you more.
Or maybe I can, but later.
- I like it.
- You said you couldn't change your career.
I like what I do. I like working with you.
If you think I'm lying, you can say,
"Screw you, you're lying!"
Move aside.
You, come!
Do you need to leave?
Here, the sign
is the opposite of x's factor.
I need you to stay.
At this rate
you'll take the baccalaureate,
pass all the subjects but Maths,
go home to study and take Maths next year.
If that's what you always do...
Now you're staying!
I can't learn for you.
Yesterday you skipped
because your sister was sick.
What's your excuse today?
- I have some stuff to do.
- What stuff?
- With my laptop.
- Are you taking a laptop exam?
Hi!
Hey, Sorin!
Look, kids,
he's a doctor in computers.
He's finishing his PhD.
The future Doctor
gained experience in France…
He could have done his PhD there,
but he wanted it only in Romania.
I asked him to explain to you what
high performance in a domain means.
Do all of you here
want to go to a STEM college?
I don't know how much you want
to stay in Romania or leave.
You can go to almost any city in Europe,
wherever you want.
Besides Erasmus there's - I don't know -
a DaVinci scholarship...
Of course,
everything is linked to your results.
It doesn't mean you have to study
day and night.
You just have to not let things
pass you by...
- What college did you go to?
- Telecoms, Electronics and IT.
- Do you use everything you learned there?
- Not at all.
I haven't used integrals in 10 years.
And I don't think I will do
in the next 10.
I mean,
if my profession doesn't change.
But studying all of these
gave me structure.
In Romania and, I believe,
in the wide world,
there's more and more kids
who don't study by themselves.
Only if you leave everything else,
and sit down with them
and learn side by side with them,
that’s when they learn.
Mom and dad yell at the kids
from dawn till dusk,
like a church bell at a monastery,
"Go study!
Did you study? Study!"
Few of them say,
"Let's learn together!"
"Let's see if I know this or that."
To show at least that they're there,
by his side.
Gifted kids do not motivate the others
to make up for the holidays.
They say, "He's not studying.
so, why should I?"
Yet, have you thought
that maybe this isn't the issue?
They just don't choose
better role models.
I know that, teaching me,
you found an opportunity...
You found someone
to motivate others.
But you saying I demoralize others
I don't think is...
You're no longer an example.
You don’t motivate them
since they don't see you studying.
There's no need to show them
that I'm studying or to make that public.
Look Sorin,
he is raising another issue.
It's not enough
for others to see him studying.
The difference between him
and your generation is…
I can't have him compete with anyone
but myself.
In your generation,
how many kids were very good?
Quite a few.
Before, throughout the years,
I had enough good kids to make a group
and have them compete against each other.
In the last five years, that has been
impossible for me to do.
Who's going to teach your children,
if you won’t become teachers?
- You will, because you're immortal.
- Nice one!
See who respects me?
I knew she was coming.
That’s the utmost respect.
How could I drink that?
- What are you doing with that?
- It's from my mare in Brăila.
I almost said something,
but it's too mean.
Is that whip
for cleaning under the bed?
All he needs
are some pink, fluffy handcuffs.
Fuck me! Teach is more mesmerized
than the cat.
He can't hear you now.
You can say whatever you want.
He's in a trance.
- Teach, what's there to eat?
- Check in the fridge.
- No, thanks. I'll find some spoiled stuff.
- Go, silly!
There's the eggplants you brought me.
Are you leaving, miss Chiosan?
- Should I charge you today?
- I guess so, I have the money.
I'll see you Monday at 3 p.m.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Hi, teach.
- Who is it?
Andreas!
Yesterday's "regretfully absent".
What did you say you would bring me?
- Bell pepper dip.
- Pepper dip? Give it here!
Today I'm working for pepper dip.
There! Today I'm working
for a jar of dip.
I'll have to calculate the taxes
on that.
- Man, which college are you going to?
- We'll talk in private.
- Is it a state secret?
- Yes, it is.
- Alright. In Romania or abroad?
- I’ll tell you later.
- Your pick or mine?
- Mine.
I’m telling you,
for me, between cleaning up
and doing what I'm doing now,
because Easter’s in three days
- we're eating and shitting here -
That's zero.
I'd rather drive around in my car
and meet my old students
on Easter Day
than stay here and clean.
It’s a whole other thing.
You’ll be able to understand this
only when…
you too, will chose careers
which offer you satisfaction.
All the bamboozling
you see in Romania, on TV,
all the crap you see in the news
and the wrongdoings in this country,
they all start from one thing.
I guarantee you
those swindling at work
are people not fulfilled by their jobs.
A person who loves their job
does not make compromises in their career.
Some of you, the ones in 12th grade,
so you don’t end up like those on TV,
set about finding careers
that give you full satisfaction.
It’s strange that you are in 12th grade
and don’t know what you want to be.
After a dozen years of work in school,
you don’t yet know what suits you.
I wanted to tell you I missed last week
because I was in England.
- Where?
- In England, at college.
- Whom did you go with?
- My girlfriend.
- Alright. And?
- I managed to get a tour of the campus.
What chances do you have?
Did you get in?
I have to take the English exam
and a 9 minimum at the baccalaureate.
Alright. Not a problem.
Sit down.
I’m not sure where I want to go.
Instead of going there to start and quit,
it’s better to sit a year out.
- Let’s think about it.
- Alright. We’ll talk some more.
We’ll talk more on the subject,
but lend an ear.
This year you’ll go here,
to Tech school.
After a year, you won’t go
anywhere else. You'll see.
We’ll see.
If that’s what you want to do,
my request is that you listen to me.
I’ve had others like you before.
It’s about three quarters
your way.
90% is your way,
For the 10% I want to do my way.
And I'll give you
the admission money.
- Alright?
- Okay.
And then,
I’ll help you find a job too.
We’ll see.
I have only one request.
What you want is fine.
90% is... No, 99% is fine.
1% you do as I say.
99 your way, one mine, with my money.
We’ll talk about it, anyway.
Look, the teach’s in jeans.
You kiddin’ me?
Not wearing trousers?
And slim-fit shirt too…
Teach, who do you wanna seduce
in that sexy outfit?
The cat!
When I wake up in the morning,
she climbs on me begging for food…
What a slim fit shirt you got on!
It cracks on the belly.
- What kind of shirt?
- Slim fit.
What’s that?
Tight to the belly.
This is the only one I won’t iron.
It stretches by itself on the belly.
That’s good you're joking,
but get to work.
Can’t you see we’re working?
Some Math I do around here…
For me, the biggest holiday
is not Easter.
But which one is?
Neither your university admission.
For me it's a holiday when
you have your first exams,
your professors congratulate you
and ask who was your Maths teacher
and you get good grades.
And when you get
a technical handbook
you know how to read it
from one cover to the other
and get good grades.
Because you learned from me
a logical way to learn a technical subject.
Teach, where do I put this one?
It's panettone.
Put it in the oven.
Which one?
The one on the right.
Actually, the other one is fine too.
Who’s there?
I am, teach!
Who?
Moldovan.
I came to bring you the money.
Andreas, won’t you attend the class?
No, I can’t.
Won’t you have a coffee?
- Coffee… yes, I’d like one.
- I knew it.
- Hi, teach!
- Brother Ivan, how are you?
Fine.
Hi, Raul!
Hello!
Is Brother David coming?
Yes, he is.
What do you think of what he said?
Sorry?
That he wants
to think of faculty for a year…
I think that’s a good decision,
given his situation.
Why?
Because if he hasn’t any other
counselling, that’s better…
Only you can counsel him.
I think that he has to do
whatever he wanted… 99%,
and 1% to listen to me and let me apply
for him to the Institute of Technology here
And in the fall,
when everyone is going to the University,
he can stay home.
I have no other solution.
When he sees better students
attending the local University,
he'll start going there too.
- Hi, teach!
- Hi, David!
- How are you?
- Not so good.
Do we have a deal?
- 99% as you want it.
- You said 1%!
99% as you wish.
And 1% as I wish.
Do we have a deal?
What do you say?
We’ll see.
Good. If you say we’ll see,
that means we’ll find a solution.
Sorry.
Better let him apply for you.
And you can get a transfer afterwards.
Anyway, I’ll also have some spare time
to get other things done.
You know what the form master said…
that you won’t get back
on the horse after that.
Come here!
Sine, come, buddy!
Cheers!
What did I tell you yesterday?
That I’d get a 9.50 or more.
Let me see the problem.
If I see it,
I’ll know what you did…
It’s not important.
So, if you take two numbers,
negative, positive, which one…
Please, go away!
It’s getting on my nerves.
Are they the same?
Yeah…
- Let’s see.
- This one.
Which one?
This one.
So the function…
Show that f derivative is positive…
that derivative of f is positive
… and then the function
takes values in the range -1 to 1.
Then, this function has the graph:
y equals minus one,
y equals one.
It should look more or less like this.
You could also see the second derivative
and you can see it had zero as inflection point.
It’s all you had to write.
Just this.
That was the most difficult of them all.
This interpretation…
it’s all you had to do.
Show that it’s zero…
This one was easy.
You had m of AB, yb minus ya,
over xb minus xa.
Yes, and they keep getting reduced.
… and then you’d get that.
This was easy.
I wrote that they were
complex numbers… plus i, minus i.
No, they’re over R, not over C.
Oh, right, so I got this one wrong.
This one was very easy.
Now I can tell you…
Pascal famously said one thing…
Actually, there are two.
The first one:
“In Mathematics,
ascensions are quite beautiful
unless you are obsessed
with your destination alone
and if you are able to enjoy
whatever you meet on the way.”
Because you pursue
the path to faculty,
I will conclude my class of Mathematics
with you
with another quote from Pascal,
who said:
“I am not...
an expert in Mathematics,
but I am in love,
tragically in love
with the most beautiful
of all sciences.”
And when I finished faculty,
I did it with a line from Kant:
“The starry heavens above me
and the moral law within me.”
You should begin your faculty studies
and end them with that…
And in your careers,
that should guide you.
Be tragically in love
with what you will do.
I mean, you should like
what you do for a living.
- Hey, dude!
- They're posted at 1 p.m.
Great.
Teach said he'd help you
with the faculty and a job.
Yes, but I could go to England.
You can go to England afterwards.
- Is it hard to drop out?
- Is it worth going here for a year?
Of course it's worth it!
Maybe you won't go to England.
So many things change
during a year, David!
Watch out, starting next year UK
is leaving the EU, and the taxes will change.
Only now, when I go,
do the taxes stay the same.
C'mon, eat!
Cheese, nutella... serve yourselves.
I'm calculating the minimum score
I need to get to be admitted.
8.70.
If I get an 8, I'm happy.
- Your average?
- Yeah.
You're happy with very little.
Well... yeah, but I couldn't...
In literature,
my standards have slipped a bit.
And Maths and Info?
In Info I'm expecting a high grade,
and in Maths too.
- Let's say you get a 10 for both.
- 10 for both? No…
Do you realize how much we waited and
there's one hour and 10 minutes left?
One hour and 20 minutes.
It's okay.
It'll be alright.
Or not.
Are we sorting by school name?
Wait, that's not right.
List it alphabetically.
Yeah. A, B...
Borfă Ionuț.
- Buhar.
- Bumbu!
Where the hell is Buhar?
Buricea!
9 in Romanian, 8.5 in Math.
- I got a 9 in literature!
- Good job! Bravo!
Oh, my God!
9 in literature...
What's the average?
Put it on the other screen,
so he can see it.
My God!
Put it on the other screen,
so he can see the average.
Let's see down the page.
I'm next, right?
Yeah.
Guguleț!
Ignătuș!
9.45 and 10.
- I'm going to the UK!
- Great job, dude!
How great!
I knew you would do well.
You also got a 9 in literature.
Look for Diana.
- God!
- Full 10 in Info! That's crazy!
9.45 in Math and 9 in literature.
Oh, my God!
I'm going to England, dude!
My God!
Wait a sec.
David. M.
- Go up. Mihuț, Moldovan...
Man!
6.25 in literature, 7.8, 9.9 in Info.
- Fuck you, dude!
- That's great!
- How much is the average, 7.98?
- Almost 8.
- It's good.
- Good job!
It's good, dude.
You didn't even study for literature.
Fuck me!
- It's good, dude, 9.90 in Info!
- Thanks, man.
Bravo!
Let me see my results again.
I want to check...
Wait.
Butnariu.
- Turbol Eric.
- 9.61.
- Țâra, 9.35.
- 9.58.
9.85 in Info.
Go down.
Where was my name?
- How much did I get in Maths?
- You got 7.80.
In Maths?
I think it’s too low.
I'm thinking about
making a grade appeal.
And 6.25 in literature...
You should be happy with that.
Since you didn’t solve the third exercise...
For Maths, I would make a grade appeal.
I feel they could give me a better grade.
- Search for G.
- Who is under G?
A former classmate.
8.2, 8.1, 9.75.
Did you think about it?
You didn't have any faith...
You didn't think I'd pass.
Now you don't know what to say.
It's sad. I know how it is
to have your parents make things difficult.
I told you since the beginning
I was gonna pass it.
You were so sure,
you didn't even consider this possibility.
C'mon, David, it's ok.
How can you be upset?
- I'm not upset, but...
- We'll make an appeal. I'll come with you.
- We'll go there at 4 p.m.
- It's risky.
4 in literature and 3 in Biology.
Fuck, how much one moment counts!
I feel bad about that exercise.
If I'd done that, I would have gotten 9.10.
Here's Rugi!
6.95...
What did your parents say
about your results?
They were surprised
that I passed the baccalaureate.
- Surprised?! Why?
- My mom started crying on the phone.
Surprised you passed?
It's not like you were a bad kid.
- They don't have faith in me.
- They have no faith!
But why not,
since you are their only son?
At least I have faith in you...
My result in Maths was disappointing.
I only got 7.80.
I calculated that I should have gotten
at the very least 8.70.
Well, you'll make an appeal.
No question about it.
They check it again, in a different school,
and they can't mark you any less.
- Did you file the appeal?
- No. Today at 4 p.m.
Do that! You have nothing to lose,
only to gain.
More than 40.000 candidates
from a total amount of 130.000 failed…
Exactly what I’ve said.
… in some places, no one passed.
There is still hope.
The global rate of those who passed
is larger than in the previous year, 66.70%.
56 students scored a perfect 10.
Most of the perfect 10s come from Bucharest,
and Cluj county had the best passing rate.
10 in literature, 10 in history....
I was right. Let’s do the maths!
I was not wrong.
I'll calculate immediately.
The statistics are very clear to me.
45.000 didn’t register.
40.000 failed.
90.000 passed.
The news is wrong.
They announced 66% passed the exam.
Not true!
I’m not turning on the TV,
because it drives me mad.
They’ve really pissed me off!
They’re lying the whole nation.
They’re fooling a whole country!
Let’s take this circle.
This is 175.000.
This year’s 12th grade generation.
One quarter...
45.000 give up.
They do not apply.
The circle gets smaller.
Somewhere around three quarters
of the other one.
This circle represents 130.000.
What is 130.000 divided by 40.000?
One third.
Right? 40.000 is a third.
Let’s draw the Mercedes symbol.
One third...
40.000 failed.
Let’s color in green
the happy 90.000 who passed.
So how do we calculate them?
From the 130.000 or the 175.000?
- From the 175.000.
- Of course!
Because that’s the whole amount
of students.
What do you do with the 45.000?
Nothing?
You can't calculate the percent like this!
What do you do with the ones
who give a crap about schooling?
90.000 passed out of how many?
All those 175.000 students
who finished school.
Out of 175.000,
90.000 students passed.
We cut the zeros.
Out of 175, only 90 have passed.
How many 25 series
do we have here?
7 series of 25.
Out of 7 series of 25,
only 90 passed.
Instead of 100, I say 4 series of 25.
Out of 4 series of 25, x passed.
They’re in direct ratio.
7 times 25 divided by 4 times 25
is 90 divided by x.
25 is reduced by 25, 7 divided by 4
is 9 divided by x.
So, x is 9 multiplied by 4,
that is 36 divided by 7.
7 by 5 is 35...
...in 30 7 goes 4 times.
The rate of success
for the final exam is 51.40%.
I took three sacks, what else?
Nothing.
That's closed....
All good.
Let's go.
Mission accomplished for this school year.
Only now am I starting my holidays.
What day is today?
20th-something July?
A message...
Merry Christmas!
What a pleasure!
Come in.
- Are carolers welcome?
- Of course. Come on in!
- Hello and welcome!
- Hello!
It’s so warm in here...
The cat’s on the table, as usual.
- Hello, my dear.
- How are you? Welcome!
- Teach, I have a gift for you.
- What is it? Let me see.
Your PhD Thesis!
Thank you!
“For all the years that passed,
for your scolding and your understanding,
for the long days and difficult nights,
for the nice words and harsh remarks,
for the quiet and chaos surrounding you
- all such opposites -
for your teaching me the commitment
to never give up during hard times,
for your courage
to always do things differently,
for every page crossed out diagonally
bottom to top,
for your role as a father figure
and for your sheer madness,
for all of this, I thank you
and I dedicate to you my thesis,
wishing you to get the chance
to touch many people with your gift."
Thank you!
You know what?
I love you!
Teach, we’ll keep in touch.
I’m coming to walk you out.
- Are we leaving too?
- We're waiting for teach and we’re leaving.
After the New Year,
let's work together for the exam.
I don’t know if I need it.
My teacher says I’m doing well in Maths.
She says I’m doing very well.
It's because of you.
Only after you work the way I want to.
- Well, yes.
Only after you work my way,
your teacher will say you're an A student.
For the moment,
you’re just doing better than others.
Take care.
I’ll see you around.
- Happy holidays! Do come by!
Thank you. To you too.
---
"I dream of a school where
nothing is actually taught,
and where young men could come to free
themselves from the tyranny of teaching."
Ulmu village, Brăila county, Romania
Sound
Editing
Producer
A film by
Auntie Aneta needs a cane to walk,
but she's still holding strong.
- Hadn’t she fallen down the stairs...
- Yeah, it would have been better.
- Are you taking her in for winter?
- No, she is staying at home.
- Does your mom need help with the corn?
- No, it's not ripe yet.
- Are you going out today?
- No, we'll be around the house.
Taking care of the grapevine.
- And... how about the kids?
- No.
I've divorced and I'm moving on.
How about you?
- What will you do with your houses?
- I'll sell them.
I'll empty the bucket using a shovel.
Otherwise I'll burn my fingers.
- Take more from the right side.
- I know what I'm doing. Leave me alone.
I'm 50 already!
Eight.
You’ve put too much,
so they're already nine!
Further down the road is
my primary school.
It's the second time I come here,
because my parents were separated.
It's tied with a string...
He used to sleep in this bed.
Look, a pair of worn out pants.
And a lamp...
This should have been
my inheritance from my father.
Look at all those bottles.
He drank himself to death.
My father never took any interest in me,
so why should I have come here?
That is why I've always been very careful
with kids that have family issues.
Because I was one of them.
Most of the social problems in Romania
derive from one main issue:
the quality of education has been
declining from one year to the next.
Not to mention examples
of the kind of schooling
received by the people
who are ruling this country.
How could one stimulate the kids
to start learning
when they see
who calls the shots in this country?
We ask for quality...
That’s impossible!
We're all shocked
by what's happening in education.
I don't regret having left the national
education system ten years ago, at 44.
When I figured out what was happening,
I said:
"Mates, you're one idiot short.
Do whatever you like.
I do what I can, if I want to,
but I'm out of here
because I've seen what comes of this."
TEACH
Bistrița, Romania
Grab that table and bring it here.
Get that bench over there.
Push it back.
Push back the other one, too.
Good.
Move it a little more.
- Good morning.
- Have you ridden your skateboard again?
Yes, I have. The board glides so nicely
on the pavement!
That stupid thing?
Aren't you afraid to slip
and have a car run over you?
I'm not afraid.
Hey! You're here too?
- Do you know each other?
- From school.
Who has just come in?
Rus and Ignătuș.
- Who?
- Rus and Ignătuș.
- A new student.
- Hi!
- Whom do you know here?
- No one.
Move a little, Radu.
Take out a page, please.
Give me your school notebooks,
to see what you’ve learned so far.
- What are you having trouble with?
- Geometry.
- Vectors?
- Yes.
We used to learn that in the 11th grade.
You learn it in the 9th grade!
I skipped one class and then
I found it impossible to catch up.
Give me the book, please.
The one you’re working on.
That's the book edited by the Didactic
and Pedagogic Publishing House.
When I was your age,
I learned vectors in the 11th grade.
Now they teach it in the 9th grade.
The head of the Mathematics department
at the Ministry of Education,
whom I don’t know personally,
is called Dumitru Săvulescu.
He has written more books
than many packs of toilet paper
or toilet paper manufacturers
in this country!
I would ask him only one thing:
I would ask him to choose one grade
from the 5th to the 12th
and one discipline of Mathematics.
And I wold ask him to tell me the order
in which he would teach the lessons.
That’s all I would ask him.
And if he gets confused,
I’m not surprised by what you know
and how your books are written.
Now, get to work!
I'll be damned!
Two times ten is one hundred...
How the hell
have you come up with that?
How much is two times ten, pal?
I'm crossing that out.
Oh, boy...
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!
The square root of two...
God, give me strength!
What the hell is this exercise asking?
Isn’t it perhaps “rationalize”?
Get that book here! It only
dulls your minds, unfortunately.
What publisher is that?
“Booby”?
The Mathematicians Club.
- Who is the author?
Some guy from the club.
The head of the Mathematics department
at the Ministry of Education, Săvulescu!
He’s been a chief executive
ever since he was born!
You placed it under the same square root,
but without rationalizing it.
Fantastic!
Such a highly scientific workbook!
If you put it on a beehive,
it turns to dust in one year.
- What year were you born in?
- ’68.
Four years younger than me.
What's happening now is mind-boggling.
Ours was proper schooling!
I still use our own school books.
The way I see it, Math is the same,
it hasn't changed.
I learned the old fashioned way
and I’m sticking to the same methods.
Right.
Come here.
This is good, this is not good.
You changed the sign here,
haven’t you?
The same type of exercise,
from here to here.
Right.
You can’t say you don’t know this,
but you're missing practice.
- Who’s that?
- Olinca.
- Olinca?
- Yes.
I’m asking him
if he has brought any food.
No one has brought me
anything warm to eat.
What have you brought for me?
Let me see, does it have any meat?
I would eat some meat.
Hand over some meat!
Put it here. I’m hungry!
Or put it on the table.
- It’s cold.
- Shame on you!
Put it between your legs to warm it up!
He was too lazy to warm it up for me.
- I didn’t have time.
- I’ll eat your ears up!
Do I look like I have time
to warm this up?
Put it on the oven.
- It's meat roll.
- Pal, roll is best eaten cold!
Let me eat now!
Murar, you’re their teacher!
I need to eat now.
My vision has totally gone black!
Last time I ate at 2 o’clock.
And it’s already 8.00!
You all went home and had lunch.
Believe me, I am STARVING.
I’m hungry. You can have
my leftovers if you want.
I get to eat first.
I’ve had nothing all day.
Mihai, cover for me.
I’m as hungry as a wolf.
If you are hungry, you can have some.
That’s charity food.
Oh, you are eating, too.
Name another colleague
to be the teacher.
Man.
Man and Țâra, check the others' work.
I get half, you get half.
- I don’t know how to solve that.
- I’ll show you.
You cut a piece, I’ll cut another.
Amadeo, what are you doing?
Putting on a show?
Your tail is frozen.
- Positive and constant.
- Is it a big fault if I write like that?
You might get penalized for it.
Or maybe not at all.
It depends on their mood.
So, this one has to be a polynomial.
Cosine, sine plus polynomial.
The same function
shouldn't come up twice.
Each trigonometric function
should have a polynomial in front.
Hey! This one is squared.
What’s this minus doing here?
I copied it from here.
Minus 14...
Seven squared is 14!
Fuck off!
Are you cursing me?
Seven squared is 14!
Of course he can't solve it.
The colleague on your left,
who's in the 5th grade, knows better.
Little lady, how much is 7 squared?
- 49.
- He wrote down 14!
Join hands, she's studying powers now.
She's learning that for the first time.
You're an old timer
and you still don't know the answers.
Are you hungry?
Who's responsible with hunger?
Anything in the fridge?
You get your hands on anything
in there, you show no mercy.
I’ve tortured myself for one hour and
you're the one complaining about food.
Give me a fucking break!
I’ve been here for three hours.
You’ve been here for one hour only.
You're three times smarter than me.
Give me your notebook!
Ivan, we’ve done
the logarithmic equations, right?
- When are you coming back?
- Tomorrow.
Take off your coat
and start with the sequences!
Provide her values.
At least to get an idea…
Don't be afraid
of the School of Engineering.
It’s a fine faculty.
I’d rather you came
when you’re done with the classes.
I’ll be chatting around here
till 9 or 10 p.m.
When you're done with school
call me and come here!
- Thank you!
- Take care.
Go figure! She’s in a Philology class,
has not studied a lot of Maths,
and she wants to enter the Tech Institute.
I just need to encourage her.
So many kids drop out!
I’ll stop writing that down now.
- Not today, but tomorrow you do it.
- Yeah, sure!
Please, don’t get smart with me!
Why didn’t you say it
in the first place?
Look into my eyes!
I knew how to solve it when they printed
the solutions to the handbook exercises.
In my first years of teaching
I was so slyly avoiding that exercise…
No problem if you’re jittery,
don’t do it today.
Next time you come
and I’ll show you how to solve it.
Understood?
I need to get some files
out of this folder.
They're the files of kids
who only came here once.
This folder is already full.
They think I can teach them Maths
only by looking at them.
Not possible!
Let's take them in order
and get them out.
Anca... I don't know
if she'll come again.
She hasn't come since April 15.
Antofi last came on May 12.
Ardelean remains.
Bolfa last came on February 12.
David is a good kid, so is Bratan...
Lisa!
If that's how you put it,
here's my answer.
I had a kid in 12th grade and
took him in at a 5th grade level.
He worked like crazy for a year
and finished two years here
and then transferred to Cluj city,
with a 9 average at Tech school.
If the kid is willing to learn,
he'll catch up.
If that senior managed to go
from 5th to 12th grade,
you can't have a 8th grade student
not catch up the last two years. Impossible!
In time, the kid will catch up, but
I need at least a year to get him there.
I want to get him out of his gang
of friends, whom I don't like,
and introduce him to a group of kids
who like to study.
This is what I want: change his
learning pace, but his friends as well.
Hello!
I’m the mother of Bogdan Patca.
You’re here telling me about your son.
About the education system, I say,
you're fortunate if your kid gets
a primary school teacher
who does their job.
This way he gets a good start.
- How are we to know who does their job?
- I understand your concern.
The recommendations we got
were good,
but this is exactly
the problem with the current system.
You shouldn’t have to learn
at home, but at school.
He should get homework he's able to do,
not for me to have to do it for him.
I know,
I run into that as well.
This suits me
because without it,
I would be out of a job.
Right. That’s
from your perspective.
Because of them, I get work.
If not for them, what would I do?
To be honest,
that’s why we sent Bogdan to you.
In the first week of school in 5th grade,
he got homework with the Gauss method.
I learned the Gauss method too.
In 10th grade.
But he had to have his homework done.
I solved it, he copied it
in his notebook, and I told him:
"Raise your hand in class and
ask the teacher to explain it to you."
But they didn't discuss it again.
I was, God help me, 16 years old
and I barely understood it.
When you're in 5th grade, the answer for
what comes after the dots is… more dots.
Why do you think
they can’t learn in class?
Talking about that
opens a whole can of worms.
I speak very freely
about why this happens.
Take Babeș University, for example.
They have 6.500 seats
for Economics students in first year
and 40 seats
for future Maths teachers.
How does Babeș, a multicultural
university, the best in Romania,
have only 40 Maths teachers,
but 6.500 economists?
And then you take Bistrița county.
Out of 2.200 jobs available,
they fill 600 with unqualified personnel
or various types of substitutes.
More than a quarter
are staff they’re begging to stay.
Retirees who don't want to teach
anymore and substitute teachers.
That’s why.
The entire education system
is like that:
The lesson on the blackboard
should be the one in the planning,
the same as the one registered
in the class book.
The teacher says, “I’ve done my lesson.
If they didn’t get it ‒ not my problem.”
The approach is,
“I have to follow my schedule.”
Not everybody
learns at the same rate!
You can’t expect everyone
to understand a lesson in the same way.
Here are 20 students at different levels.
I know what each of them is doing.
How do I do this one?
Explain the modulus and divide by x.
I was a disciple of Constantin Noica.
I very much liked what I found
in his Philosophical Journal
and I’m sharing it with all of you
“I dream of a school system
in which nothing is taught
and the students can free themselves
from the 'Tyranny of teachers'."
To be able to ask
about anything you don’t know.
Kids come from school
with things still unclear to them.
“I don’t know.”
“You get an F.”
That’s absurd.
Here, kitty, kitty!
Andrei, you'll catch a cold.
Amadeo!
Amadeo!
Come on.
I got out of the state-owned system
because I didn't have any time to sleep.
I'd come home and
there was a crowd outside.
So I had to give something up.
The educational system here,
in Romania,
with what it asks from you,
doesn't let you do your job.
All you do is paperwork! Why not
make a portfolio for each student.
Paperwork and more paperwork!
If only you could
make a copy of the toilet paper
and add it to the portfolio
so you get a bigger stack of papers.
There is the triad
parent-teacher-student.
In the teacher-student relationship,
the kid fails because of the parent.
In the parent-student relationship,
the kid fails because
the teacher didn't do his job.
In the parent-teacher relationship,
things don't go well because
the student doesn't do his job.
And the blame is passed
from one to the other.
So we're in a triad.
The outcome, the way
all kids around the country perform,
is the result of the teacher's work
in the classroom.
And this is valid for every subject.
Like teacher, like students.
That's it.
- Raul, do come tomorrow!
- I will.
P, R, S...
- Hi!
- Hello!
- David, do you know him?
- Didn’t you use to come here at 6 a.m.?
I did.
Once, he threw your notebook
in the fire.
That’s right.
He shows up in the morning
after a night of partying.
I draw the curtains, set him up
in the bed to sleep.
I turn off both our phones
and my boy sleeps like a log.
Around 2 p.m.,
I turn the phone back on.
“Professor!”
"My boy!"
Your son? You gave him 50 bucks
and three condoms.
Your boy...
Come here and I'll show you.
I’m telling his mom,
“Come and see.”
- What’s the deal with this chair?
- I have an issue in the front.
From so much Maths,
my balls turned blue.
- How is it going this year?
- This year the kids are doing well.
Some of them study hard...
For example, him.
His mom’s working in Germany.
He’s alone at home, with nowhere to go.
With his grandparents gone,
there's nowhere else to go but here.
The clubs are closed on Christmas Eve.
But he’s not one for clubs.
He worked all summer.
He's the only kid here
who bought a high-end computer
with his own money.
This other one - his dad’s gone,
his mom needs surgery a fourth time.
Grandma’s got her mind
on her sick daughter.
Why watch them moaning and groaning?
Here he's got Maths to help him forget.
The other one
is going to be a Maths teacher.
He's got the tent up in bed
and does what he wants: study.
That’s good.
Is it good?
- Yes.
Really?
- Yes, it is.
- Do you welcome carolers?
- There's carolers here all day so, no.
I have three cats and
all town’s here caroling. Today, no.
I don’t have time to receive carolers.
That one came from Iași to study...
I got these as a gift. This one
got in first at Tech school in 2003.
He also studied in Vienna.
But look at what he writes.
From 2003 to 2011?
Five years of college, then the Master
and three years of PhD.
Look here.
I deeply thank
the one who showed me
I was better than I thought.
Good. Who’s this guy supervising?
A National Academy member.
To my teacher, Dorin V. Ioniță,
who was and is like a father to me.
Four in that class received a PhD.
I put the whip on them.
Whip them at the right time.
Make them work!
They can enjoy themselves later.
Lay a foundation for them!
This one‘s doing Maths in his pajama.
He comes first and leaves last.
Sometimes,
he leaves in the morning.
He says, “Good morning!”
when he comes and when he leaves.
Come see what’s going on.
This is Christmas, my friend.
That’s all my food.
the kids brought all of it.
For Christmas, as homework,
I have to burn all the cardboard.
I fill the house with cardboard
so it looks it's students.
It used to be full at Christmas.
Yep.
Here...
Here is something I don’t like.
And I’ll tell you why.
Leave the minus in front.
Minus and minus gives you plus.
This one derived with x is 2x.
You derive the one on the exterior last.
What was the real secret?
I sometimes ask myself that.
About the secret
to me working well with you.
If you want,
I’ll tell you after these 12 years.
You weren’t conventional at all.
No. That too,
but there’s a more important one.
We were friends.
A more important reason.
More important than this?
- … than being friends?
- Yes, the most important one.
I had you here with your whole crew.
I took in hand all your friends.
If you lied to me,
I would ask Brendea or Roșu.
You didn’t tell them to lie to me.
I knew everything you were doing.
I knew you rolled over in your car
that some shepherds wanted
to beat you up
that you killed some sheep,
stayed at a hotel, ran off the next day.
I didn't tell your mom.
You wouldn’t want her nagging you.
For me, you were just a boy,
I treated you as my own child
and didn’t scold you.
That was all.
Let us see who's done.
- Mrs. Rusu?!
- Just a second.
Bonjour!
Hello!
I'm out to buy dog food.
How about you?
They’re frozen. That’s good.
- And what’s that?
- Lungs.
Good. Cash it!
17.70 lei.
Dobrogea, land of flowers, Dobrogea…
Here’s a song about my homeland.
I was born in Brăila, so only
the Danube separated me from Dobrogea.
I'm very much in love
with the Danube river.
I'll play a nice one from home.
"Come and take me on your boat"
Boatman, I would ask you
Come and take me on your boat…
Pass me the bread.
Let me eat for five minutes.
- Do you still have food like this?
- Why?
I'm hungry.
I can't bring you more.
Or maybe I can, but later.
- I like it.
- You said you couldn't change your career.
I like what I do. I like working with you.
If you think I'm lying, you can say,
"Screw you, you're lying!"
Move aside.
You, come!
Do you need to leave?
Here, the sign
is the opposite of x's factor.
I need you to stay.
At this rate
you'll take the baccalaureate,
pass all the subjects but Maths,
go home to study and take Maths next year.
If that's what you always do...
Now you're staying!
I can't learn for you.
Yesterday you skipped
because your sister was sick.
What's your excuse today?
- I have some stuff to do.
- What stuff?
- With my laptop.
- Are you taking a laptop exam?
Hi!
Hey, Sorin!
Look, kids,
he's a doctor in computers.
He's finishing his PhD.
The future Doctor
gained experience in France…
He could have done his PhD there,
but he wanted it only in Romania.
I asked him to explain to you what
high performance in a domain means.
Do all of you here
want to go to a STEM college?
I don't know how much you want
to stay in Romania or leave.
You can go to almost any city in Europe,
wherever you want.
Besides Erasmus there's - I don't know -
a DaVinci scholarship...
Of course,
everything is linked to your results.
It doesn't mean you have to study
day and night.
You just have to not let things
pass you by...
- What college did you go to?
- Telecoms, Electronics and IT.
- Do you use everything you learned there?
- Not at all.
I haven't used integrals in 10 years.
And I don't think I will do
in the next 10.
I mean,
if my profession doesn't change.
But studying all of these
gave me structure.
In Romania and, I believe,
in the wide world,
there's more and more kids
who don't study by themselves.
Only if you leave everything else,
and sit down with them
and learn side by side with them,
that’s when they learn.
Mom and dad yell at the kids
from dawn till dusk,
like a church bell at a monastery,
"Go study!
Did you study? Study!"
Few of them say,
"Let's learn together!"
"Let's see if I know this or that."
To show at least that they're there,
by his side.
Gifted kids do not motivate the others
to make up for the holidays.
They say, "He's not studying.
so, why should I?"
Yet, have you thought
that maybe this isn't the issue?
They just don't choose
better role models.
I know that, teaching me,
you found an opportunity...
You found someone
to motivate others.
But you saying I demoralize others
I don't think is...
You're no longer an example.
You don’t motivate them
since they don't see you studying.
There's no need to show them
that I'm studying or to make that public.
Look Sorin,
he is raising another issue.
It's not enough
for others to see him studying.
The difference between him
and your generation is…
I can't have him compete with anyone
but myself.
In your generation,
how many kids were very good?
Quite a few.
Before, throughout the years,
I had enough good kids to make a group
and have them compete against each other.
In the last five years, that has been
impossible for me to do.
Who's going to teach your children,
if you won’t become teachers?
- You will, because you're immortal.
- Nice one!
See who respects me?
I knew she was coming.
That’s the utmost respect.
How could I drink that?
- What are you doing with that?
- It's from my mare in Brăila.
I almost said something,
but it's too mean.
Is that whip
for cleaning under the bed?
All he needs
are some pink, fluffy handcuffs.
Fuck me! Teach is more mesmerized
than the cat.
He can't hear you now.
You can say whatever you want.
He's in a trance.
- Teach, what's there to eat?
- Check in the fridge.
- No, thanks. I'll find some spoiled stuff.
- Go, silly!
There's the eggplants you brought me.
Are you leaving, miss Chiosan?
- Should I charge you today?
- I guess so, I have the money.
I'll see you Monday at 3 p.m.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Hi, teach.
- Who is it?
Andreas!
Yesterday's "regretfully absent".
What did you say you would bring me?
- Bell pepper dip.
- Pepper dip? Give it here!
Today I'm working for pepper dip.
There! Today I'm working
for a jar of dip.
I'll have to calculate the taxes
on that.
- Man, which college are you going to?
- We'll talk in private.
- Is it a state secret?
- Yes, it is.
- Alright. In Romania or abroad?
- I’ll tell you later.
- Your pick or mine?
- Mine.
I’m telling you,
for me, between cleaning up
and doing what I'm doing now,
because Easter’s in three days
- we're eating and shitting here -
That's zero.
I'd rather drive around in my car
and meet my old students
on Easter Day
than stay here and clean.
It’s a whole other thing.
You’ll be able to understand this
only when…
you too, will chose careers
which offer you satisfaction.
All the bamboozling
you see in Romania, on TV,
all the crap you see in the news
and the wrongdoings in this country,
they all start from one thing.
I guarantee you
those swindling at work
are people not fulfilled by their jobs.
A person who loves their job
does not make compromises in their career.
Some of you, the ones in 12th grade,
so you don’t end up like those on TV,
set about finding careers
that give you full satisfaction.
It’s strange that you are in 12th grade
and don’t know what you want to be.
After a dozen years of work in school,
you don’t yet know what suits you.
I wanted to tell you I missed last week
because I was in England.
- Where?
- In England, at college.
- Whom did you go with?
- My girlfriend.
- Alright. And?
- I managed to get a tour of the campus.
What chances do you have?
Did you get in?
I have to take the English exam
and a 9 minimum at the baccalaureate.
Alright. Not a problem.
Sit down.
I’m not sure where I want to go.
Instead of going there to start and quit,
it’s better to sit a year out.
- Let’s think about it.
- Alright. We’ll talk some more.
We’ll talk more on the subject,
but lend an ear.
This year you’ll go here,
to Tech school.
After a year, you won’t go
anywhere else. You'll see.
We’ll see.
If that’s what you want to do,
my request is that you listen to me.
I’ve had others like you before.
It’s about three quarters
your way.
90% is your way,
For the 10% I want to do my way.
And I'll give you
the admission money.
- Alright?
- Okay.
And then,
I’ll help you find a job too.
We’ll see.
I have only one request.
What you want is fine.
90% is... No, 99% is fine.
1% you do as I say.
99 your way, one mine, with my money.
We’ll talk about it, anyway.
Look, the teach’s in jeans.
You kiddin’ me?
Not wearing trousers?
And slim-fit shirt too…
Teach, who do you wanna seduce
in that sexy outfit?
The cat!
When I wake up in the morning,
she climbs on me begging for food…
What a slim fit shirt you got on!
It cracks on the belly.
- What kind of shirt?
- Slim fit.
What’s that?
Tight to the belly.
This is the only one I won’t iron.
It stretches by itself on the belly.
That’s good you're joking,
but get to work.
Can’t you see we’re working?
Some Math I do around here…
For me, the biggest holiday
is not Easter.
But which one is?
Neither your university admission.
For me it's a holiday when
you have your first exams,
your professors congratulate you
and ask who was your Maths teacher
and you get good grades.
And when you get
a technical handbook
you know how to read it
from one cover to the other
and get good grades.
Because you learned from me
a logical way to learn a technical subject.
Teach, where do I put this one?
It's panettone.
Put it in the oven.
Which one?
The one on the right.
Actually, the other one is fine too.
Who’s there?
I am, teach!
Who?
Moldovan.
I came to bring you the money.
Andreas, won’t you attend the class?
No, I can’t.
Won’t you have a coffee?
- Coffee… yes, I’d like one.
- I knew it.
- Hi, teach!
- Brother Ivan, how are you?
Fine.
Hi, Raul!
Hello!
Is Brother David coming?
Yes, he is.
What do you think of what he said?
Sorry?
That he wants
to think of faculty for a year…
I think that’s a good decision,
given his situation.
Why?
Because if he hasn’t any other
counselling, that’s better…
Only you can counsel him.
I think that he has to do
whatever he wanted… 99%,
and 1% to listen to me and let me apply
for him to the Institute of Technology here
And in the fall,
when everyone is going to the University,
he can stay home.
I have no other solution.
When he sees better students
attending the local University,
he'll start going there too.
- Hi, teach!
- Hi, David!
- How are you?
- Not so good.
Do we have a deal?
- 99% as you want it.
- You said 1%!
99% as you wish.
And 1% as I wish.
Do we have a deal?
What do you say?
We’ll see.
Good. If you say we’ll see,
that means we’ll find a solution.
Sorry.
Better let him apply for you.
And you can get a transfer afterwards.
Anyway, I’ll also have some spare time
to get other things done.
You know what the form master said…
that you won’t get back
on the horse after that.
Come here!
Sine, come, buddy!
Cheers!
What did I tell you yesterday?
That I’d get a 9.50 or more.
Let me see the problem.
If I see it,
I’ll know what you did…
It’s not important.
So, if you take two numbers,
negative, positive, which one…
Please, go away!
It’s getting on my nerves.
Are they the same?
Yeah…
- Let’s see.
- This one.
Which one?
This one.
So the function…
Show that f derivative is positive…
that derivative of f is positive
… and then the function
takes values in the range -1 to 1.
Then, this function has the graph:
y equals minus one,
y equals one.
It should look more or less like this.
You could also see the second derivative
and you can see it had zero as inflection point.
It’s all you had to write.
Just this.
That was the most difficult of them all.
This interpretation…
it’s all you had to do.
Show that it’s zero…
This one was easy.
You had m of AB, yb minus ya,
over xb minus xa.
Yes, and they keep getting reduced.
… and then you’d get that.
This was easy.
I wrote that they were
complex numbers… plus i, minus i.
No, they’re over R, not over C.
Oh, right, so I got this one wrong.
This one was very easy.
Now I can tell you…
Pascal famously said one thing…
Actually, there are two.
The first one:
“In Mathematics,
ascensions are quite beautiful
unless you are obsessed
with your destination alone
and if you are able to enjoy
whatever you meet on the way.”
Because you pursue
the path to faculty,
I will conclude my class of Mathematics
with you
with another quote from Pascal,
who said:
“I am not...
an expert in Mathematics,
but I am in love,
tragically in love
with the most beautiful
of all sciences.”
And when I finished faculty,
I did it with a line from Kant:
“The starry heavens above me
and the moral law within me.”
You should begin your faculty studies
and end them with that…
And in your careers,
that should guide you.
Be tragically in love
with what you will do.
I mean, you should like
what you do for a living.
- Hey, dude!
- They're posted at 1 p.m.
Great.
Teach said he'd help you
with the faculty and a job.
Yes, but I could go to England.
You can go to England afterwards.
- Is it hard to drop out?
- Is it worth going here for a year?
Of course it's worth it!
Maybe you won't go to England.
So many things change
during a year, David!
Watch out, starting next year UK
is leaving the EU, and the taxes will change.
Only now, when I go,
do the taxes stay the same.
C'mon, eat!
Cheese, nutella... serve yourselves.
I'm calculating the minimum score
I need to get to be admitted.
8.70.
If I get an 8, I'm happy.
- Your average?
- Yeah.
You're happy with very little.
Well... yeah, but I couldn't...
In literature,
my standards have slipped a bit.
And Maths and Info?
In Info I'm expecting a high grade,
and in Maths too.
- Let's say you get a 10 for both.
- 10 for both? No…
Do you realize how much we waited and
there's one hour and 10 minutes left?
One hour and 20 minutes.
It's okay.
It'll be alright.
Or not.
Are we sorting by school name?
Wait, that's not right.
List it alphabetically.
Yeah. A, B...
Borfă Ionuț.
- Buhar.
- Bumbu!
Where the hell is Buhar?
Buricea!
9 in Romanian, 8.5 in Math.
- I got a 9 in literature!
- Good job! Bravo!
Oh, my God!
9 in literature...
What's the average?
Put it on the other screen,
so he can see it.
My God!
Put it on the other screen,
so he can see the average.
Let's see down the page.
I'm next, right?
Yeah.
Guguleț!
Ignătuș!
9.45 and 10.
- I'm going to the UK!
- Great job, dude!
How great!
I knew you would do well.
You also got a 9 in literature.
Look for Diana.
- God!
- Full 10 in Info! That's crazy!
9.45 in Math and 9 in literature.
Oh, my God!
I'm going to England, dude!
My God!
Wait a sec.
David. M.
- Go up. Mihuț, Moldovan...
Man!
6.25 in literature, 7.8, 9.9 in Info.
- Fuck you, dude!
- That's great!
- How much is the average, 7.98?
- Almost 8.
- It's good.
- Good job!
It's good, dude.
You didn't even study for literature.
Fuck me!
- It's good, dude, 9.90 in Info!
- Thanks, man.
Bravo!
Let me see my results again.
I want to check...
Wait.
Butnariu.
- Turbol Eric.
- 9.61.
- Țâra, 9.35.
- 9.58.
9.85 in Info.
Go down.
Where was my name?
- How much did I get in Maths?
- You got 7.80.
In Maths?
I think it’s too low.
I'm thinking about
making a grade appeal.
And 6.25 in literature...
You should be happy with that.
Since you didn’t solve the third exercise...
For Maths, I would make a grade appeal.
I feel they could give me a better grade.
- Search for G.
- Who is under G?
A former classmate.
8.2, 8.1, 9.75.
Did you think about it?
You didn't have any faith...
You didn't think I'd pass.
Now you don't know what to say.
It's sad. I know how it is
to have your parents make things difficult.
I told you since the beginning
I was gonna pass it.
You were so sure,
you didn't even consider this possibility.
C'mon, David, it's ok.
How can you be upset?
- I'm not upset, but...
- We'll make an appeal. I'll come with you.
- We'll go there at 4 p.m.
- It's risky.
4 in literature and 3 in Biology.
Fuck, how much one moment counts!
I feel bad about that exercise.
If I'd done that, I would have gotten 9.10.
Here's Rugi!
6.95...
What did your parents say
about your results?
They were surprised
that I passed the baccalaureate.
- Surprised?! Why?
- My mom started crying on the phone.
Surprised you passed?
It's not like you were a bad kid.
- They don't have faith in me.
- They have no faith!
But why not,
since you are their only son?
At least I have faith in you...
My result in Maths was disappointing.
I only got 7.80.
I calculated that I should have gotten
at the very least 8.70.
Well, you'll make an appeal.
No question about it.
They check it again, in a different school,
and they can't mark you any less.
- Did you file the appeal?
- No. Today at 4 p.m.
Do that! You have nothing to lose,
only to gain.
More than 40.000 candidates
from a total amount of 130.000 failed…
Exactly what I’ve said.
… in some places, no one passed.
There is still hope.
The global rate of those who passed
is larger than in the previous year, 66.70%.
56 students scored a perfect 10.
Most of the perfect 10s come from Bucharest,
and Cluj county had the best passing rate.
10 in literature, 10 in history....
I was right. Let’s do the maths!
I was not wrong.
I'll calculate immediately.
The statistics are very clear to me.
45.000 didn’t register.
40.000 failed.
90.000 passed.
The news is wrong.
They announced 66% passed the exam.
Not true!
I’m not turning on the TV,
because it drives me mad.
They’ve really pissed me off!
They’re lying the whole nation.
They’re fooling a whole country!
Let’s take this circle.
This is 175.000.
This year’s 12th grade generation.
One quarter...
45.000 give up.
They do not apply.
The circle gets smaller.
Somewhere around three quarters
of the other one.
This circle represents 130.000.
What is 130.000 divided by 40.000?
One third.
Right? 40.000 is a third.
Let’s draw the Mercedes symbol.
One third...
40.000 failed.
Let’s color in green
the happy 90.000 who passed.
So how do we calculate them?
From the 130.000 or the 175.000?
- From the 175.000.
- Of course!
Because that’s the whole amount
of students.
What do you do with the 45.000?
Nothing?
You can't calculate the percent like this!
What do you do with the ones
who give a crap about schooling?
90.000 passed out of how many?
All those 175.000 students
who finished school.
Out of 175.000,
90.000 students passed.
We cut the zeros.
Out of 175, only 90 have passed.
How many 25 series
do we have here?
7 series of 25.
Out of 7 series of 25,
only 90 passed.
Instead of 100, I say 4 series of 25.
Out of 4 series of 25, x passed.
They’re in direct ratio.
7 times 25 divided by 4 times 25
is 90 divided by x.
25 is reduced by 25, 7 divided by 4
is 9 divided by x.
So, x is 9 multiplied by 4,
that is 36 divided by 7.
7 by 5 is 35...
...in 30 7 goes 4 times.
The rate of success
for the final exam is 51.40%.
I took three sacks, what else?
Nothing.
That's closed....
All good.
Let's go.
Mission accomplished for this school year.
Only now am I starting my holidays.
What day is today?
20th-something July?
A message...
Merry Christmas!
What a pleasure!
Come in.
- Are carolers welcome?
- Of course. Come on in!
- Hello and welcome!
- Hello!
It’s so warm in here...
The cat’s on the table, as usual.
- Hello, my dear.
- How are you? Welcome!
- Teach, I have a gift for you.
- What is it? Let me see.
Your PhD Thesis!
Thank you!
“For all the years that passed,
for your scolding and your understanding,
for the long days and difficult nights,
for the nice words and harsh remarks,
for the quiet and chaos surrounding you
- all such opposites -
for your teaching me the commitment
to never give up during hard times,
for your courage
to always do things differently,
for every page crossed out diagonally
bottom to top,
for your role as a father figure
and for your sheer madness,
for all of this, I thank you
and I dedicate to you my thesis,
wishing you to get the chance
to touch many people with your gift."
Thank you!
You know what?
I love you!
Teach, we’ll keep in touch.
I’m coming to walk you out.
- Are we leaving too?
- We're waiting for teach and we’re leaving.
After the New Year,
let's work together for the exam.
I don’t know if I need it.
My teacher says I’m doing well in Maths.
She says I’m doing very well.
It's because of you.
Only after you work the way I want to.
- Well, yes.
Only after you work my way,
your teacher will say you're an A student.
For the moment,
you’re just doing better than others.
Take care.
I’ll see you around.
- Happy holidays! Do come by!
Thank you. To you too.