Spike This!

Educate This: A Podcast for Teachers, Trainers, Mentors, Coaches & Learners

Spike This
There is a horrible saying that I abhor. If it was personified I’d probably kick it over a cliff. Actually that sounds a bit violent. But maybe you’ll agree. Let me know.
It’s from George Bernard Shaw’s play “Man & Superman” and without context it’s just – ugh – no words. Of course quotes do get passed down without context and in this case it became a mock of teaching.
“He who can does; he who cannot, teaches.”
Nope. I mean, I’m sure there’s cases of that as this is of people who “do” without knowing but the best teachers are those who are industry weathered.
Aristotle said it better.
He who knows, does. He who understands, teaches.
The person I want to talk about today perfectly proves the Aristotle quote.
For 4 decades, since the 1980s, Spike Lee has being creating and releasing excellent film after excellent film. He’s not only prolific but his standards are relatively consistent. Movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has 19 of his films hitting over 90% favourability with critics with many more 80% plus.
From his 1986 breakthrough film “She’s Gotta Have it” to Oscar snubbed Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 25th Hour, When We Were Kings and one of my favourites from the last decade Black Kkklansman, he has earned the title of not just director, but auteur.

The film She’s Gotta Have It launched Lee's career and he not only directed it but he also wrote, produced, starred and edited the film with a budget of $175,000, It was shot in two weeks and went on to gross over $7 million at the U.S. box office.
New York Times film critic A.O. Scott wrote that the film helped "usher in “the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also groundbreaking media for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites."

In 1989, Lee made what many consider his most seminal film, Do the Right Thing,. The film told a story of bubbling racial tension on a scorching hot summer day.
The film's ensemble cast was a who’s who looking back but were relative unknowns back then. They included Spike Lee, Ossie Davis,, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Martin Lawrence Samuel L. Jackson.
It earned critical acclaim and was considered by notable critics as one of the best films of the year. Roger Ebert ranked the film as the best of 1989, and later in their top 10 films of the decade

Spike Lee is an artist. He creates socio-political art that plays within stories of race and politics that anyone sharp to the tones of the climate of the day can pick up on and understand.

Despite being at the top of his game as filmmaker, and despite being an incredible artist who makes a fine living from those pursuits there is also another title and role that he values and holds dearly.

Spike Lee, is a teacher. By literal title he is a teacher.

To be exact he is a professor.
Spike was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Brooklyn, Lee headed back south as a young adult to attend Morehouse College. After he graduated, he returned to New York to continue his education at NYU Tisch School of Arts in Manhattan,
This is where he would receive his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Film Production.
Soon after the success of the Oscar-nominated Do the Right Thing in 89, Spike taught his first course on filmmaking at Harvard and 2 years later he officially joined the faculty at NYU Tisch.
Since 2002 he has served as artistic director of the Graduate Film Program.

Professor Spike Lee comes from a line of teachers. His grandmother and mother were both educators. It’s in his blood.
What is often said about Lee by his colleagues, students and actors is that he allows himself to be available for people and offers himself as a willing resource.
He is also pro-active in finding learning opportunities for his students. For example, while making his Emmy-winning documentary series When the Levees Broke, brought in 15 of his students as interns so that they could all receive direct, first-hand experience.

In the last two decades alone, Lee has mentored many who have gone on to create and/or direct critically acclaimed films. the likes of Dee Rees (Pariah; Mudbound), Michael Larnell (Cronies; Roxanne Roxanne), Stefon Bristol (See You Yesterday), Paul Dalio (Touched by Fire), Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men), and countless other grad film students.
Here are 3 applicable lessons that we can draw out from Spike Lee’s teaching career.
He learns from his own work.
One of Lee’s grad students, Reinaldo Marcus Green whose feature film debut Monsters and Men earned a special jury prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival commented, “There’s nobody like Spike Lee. He is the epitome of originality… He’s relentless in his work ethic and in his output. He remains a student of the craft after all these years.”

It is important that we don’t fall into the trap of getting the job done to get the job done and then walk away without having considered any lessons that can be taken away.
What mistakes were made? What did I do well? Is there anything that I can and should replicate again? What skills were developed? How did I solve a particular problem? And so on.
“I’ve been so busy working that I haven’t had a chance to study. Now that I’m retired I can finally complete my education!”
An older aged student of mine once said that to me.
I replied “That’s great to hear that you are ready and willing but the truth is, education is something that can never be completed. And that’s not a daunting thing. It’s exciting. There is always more to learn. Second, I guarantee that you have been learning on the job.”
I then tied those 2 truths together by asking him to talk about a few things that he had learned over the course of his 40-year career in construction. What technological advances have been made in the industry? What role has that played and how much has that changed from the time he started until now?” and so on.

AI, automation, new job models, more efficient tools, 3D printing so many things have been and are being developed within most industries that even if we stuck with the same career from high school to retirement we would need to be learning in order to keep up.

The continual pursuit of learning has become accepted and lets face it expected, as an imperative to the economic health of a business.
Not only that, but many studies show that after the nature of...