"World's Lamest Teacher" by Casey Floyd

Ask anyone in America if teacher's are underappreciated, and you'll likely see a uniform opinion.

Take it from someone who experienced it firsthand:

"I taught high school for 5 years and the demand of the job wasn't sustainable for me," writer-director Casey Floyd says. "Often I feel ashamed for leaving the profession because I felt so valued by the students, but ultimately it was easy to leave when I felt so unvalued by modern culture, mentally weighed down by the rigor of the job, and monetarily unable to keep up."

His short film, World's Lamest Teacher, is in part a cathartic expression of his experience as an educator. One that Floyd found to be almost universal in speaking with other teachers—and one rarely captured in cinema.

He explains, too, "There are a myriad of reasons why we have a nationwide teacher shortage. My hope for this film is to illuminate the reasons that I walked away. That micro morality decisions are constantly being made in the classroom. That doing what's best for a student overall can be incredibly nuanced and difficult. That monitoring your students' mental health is a much bigger part of the job than anyone wants to talk about ... There are both warm moments and chilling ones within the experiences of a few characters, how a culture of burnout is constantly at war with the desperate need to be there and care for students."

... you should all be writing Thank You letters to your former teachers.

Set across the course of a single day, with what we would call a helluva performance by actor Daniel Beltram, World's Lamest Teacher personifies, in Floyd's view, the lack of empathy toward educators, told in a grave honesty that he hopes reflects "the isolation and weight" placed on the profession.

About Casey Floyd

Casey Floyd is a writer and director from Galveston, Texas and living in Little Rock, Arkansas.

He came to filmmaking the long way after spending time in journalism, sports media, corporate marketing, and five years as a high school teacher. He now serves as a Lecturer in the Film department of The University of Central Arkansas.

His MFA thesis film, World’s Lamest Teacher, is based on his experiences in public education and is currently on its festival run.

In between working and writing, you’ll find Casey doing what he loves most: playing pattycake with his daughter Ada, in endless pursuit of making her laugh.