Room 222 (TV Series) Our Teacher Is Obsolete (1969) User Reviews

A reference to Valley of the Dolls made me laugh out loud

[mgmstar128 · 8/10 · 14 November 2017]

This episode shows how much teaching has changed over the years.

An older spinster teacher who has created a class called Preparation for Marriage every day teaches her class reading aloud from her well crafted lesson plans. She doesn't engage her students in conversation until a substitute teacher shows her how active her students can be in class when they are allowed to be actively involved with the discussion.

When the principal gets involved since the students have organized a petition to have the original teacher replaced, the principal asks the substitute who is the school's guidance counselor (who really would never have been asked to substitute a class) "What did you do to her class yesterday? Read them Valley of the Dolls?" This made me laugh since Jacqueline Suzanne's novel was a ground-breaker in many ways, and it is still read, even if it is no longer shocking and influential.

In the end, the teacher begins to see that she can still teach the course she created, but now realizes that she must allow her students to be able to become part of the class as active not passive participants.

Poor Miss Tandy

[dtucker86 · 10/10 · 2 October 2023]

Miss Tandy is a wonderful educator who teaches a class on preparation for marriage. She merely reads from a written lesson plan so she is good hearted by boring. She lets Pete's girl friend Liz take over while she goes to a wedding and it is a decision that she comes to regret when the students fall in love with Liz's more original and creative approach. They pepper her with interesting questions and they show that they are more intelligent then Miss Tandy thought they were. Maybe this shows the greatest lessons that kids learn about life do not come from their textbooks. In fact the students become so enamored with Liz they start a petition to have her replace the older teacher. Liz scolds the bratty students for hurting ms. Tandy and I just wish teachers today would use this kind of "tough love". The actress that plays Ms. Tandy was also on the Waltons. By the way at the end of this episode Pete Dixon makes a mistake talking about history. Alice tells Liz that if Eleanor Roosevelt was a ten and Mrs. Hitler was a one on the scale then she is an eight. Pete tells her there was no Mrs. Hitler. WRONG Hitler married Eva Braun in the bunker the day of his death. Pete should have known better.