
In a world that told them how to think, she showed them how to live.
Plot outline
Personal notes
Cast
- Julia Roberts
- Kirsten Dunst
- Julia Stiles
- Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Ginnifer Goodwin
- Dominic West
- Juliet Stevenson
- Marcia Gay Harden
- John Slattery
- Marian Seldes
- Donna Mitchell
- Terence Rigby
- Jennie Eisenhower
- Leslie Lyles
- Laura Allen
- Topher Grace
- Lily Lodge
- Jordan Bridges
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach
- Christopher Braden
- Chuck Montgomery
- Taylor Roberts
- John Scurti
- Ed Peed
- Rony Clanton
- Becky Veduccio
- Paul Vincent Black
- Lisa Roberts Gillan
- June Miller
- Aleksa Palladino
- Charles Techman
- Lauren Adler
- Daisy Baldwin
- Janine Barris
- Emily Bauer
- Kirstie Bingham
- Jennifer Bowen
- Angelique Claire
- Nikki Coble
- Kristen Connolly
- Kristyn Coppola
- Kimberly Ehly
- Megan Marie Ford
- Lauren Fruchter
- Kate Glass
- Amanda Gruss
- Stella Hao
- Walker Hays
- Michele Hillen
- Annika Marks
- Amy Montminy
- Lily Rabe
- Katherine Reilly
- Krysten Ritter
- Brandy Tipton
- Trisha Trokan
- Megan Tropea
- Maja Wampuszyc
- Mary Pascoe
- Elise Passamani
- Laura M. Flahive
- Devon Jencks
- Erin E. Richardson
- Emily R. See
- Rob Buntzen
- Richard O'Rourke
- Chris Bonomo
- Katherine Argo
- Shelby Bond
- Lou Brock
- Michael Choi
- Melissa Deles
- John D. Fowler
- Nicole Frydman
- Noelle Gibson
- Maria Vicens Girau
- Natalie Gomez
- Sid Grant
- Madeleine Hackney
- Betina Hershey
- Yuval Hod
- Richard Jones
- Jerry Jordan
- Nickolay Khazanov
- Nadia Kravets
- Maria Levinstein
- KellyDawn Malloy
- Annette Nicole
- Lance Olds
- Joe Palmer
- Christian Perry
- Daniel Ponickly
- Tony Scheppler
- Solomon Singer
- Gabriel Vaughan
- Kim Villanueva
- Dan Weltner
- Sarah Billings Wheeler
- Denise Zadroga
- Peter J. Rowan
- Tori Amos
- Kevin Osborne
- Brad Mehldau
- Larry Grenadier
- Julie Wagner
- Jennifer Anderson
- Lindsey White
- Chris Burke
- Dorothy Dwyer
- Melanie Angelique Moyer
- Canedy Knowles
- Kristen Marie Holly
- Carrie Ann Kaye
- Liliane Thomas
- Jackie Sanders
- Corey W. Allen
- Kevin Anton
- Rob Armstrong
- Whitney Avalon
- Eric Bruno Borgman
- Jodie Brunelle
- Marylouise Burke
- Jean Burns
- Brooke Campbell
- Cristie Schoen Codd
- Katrina Connor
- Marcus Allen Cooper
- Ty Copeman
- David J. Cummins
- Michael Cuomo
- Grenville Cuyler
- Claire Elizabeth Davies
- Erik Davies
- Marlo DiCrasto
- Ashley Dru Douglass
- Liesl Ehardt
- Aprill Fasino
- Lauren Ferrara
- Megan Ferrara
- Anna Fields
- Jeannette Gould
- Kathryn Gracey
- Keith Hallworth
- Eric Hersh
- Ashley Hillis
- Maureen Isern
- Jessica Leigh Johnson
- Vivian Kalinov
- Kara Klein
- Dana Lubotsky
- Josh Mann
- Sara Mayer-Fried
- Trish McGettrick
- Denis McKeown
- Marisa Mickel
- Mark C. Montague
- Randi Newton
- Marni Penning
- James Donnell Quinn
- Seth Reich
- Dina Rose Rivera
- Lindsay Roth
- Maria Rusolo
- Gabrielle Salinger
- Megan Sambataro
- Matthew Shaffer
- Melissa Goodwin Shepherd
- Bobby Shue
- Frank Stellato
- Valerie Vaile
- Jill Whitaker
- Gunna Wilson
Plots
A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles.
Katherine Ann Watson has accepted a position teaching art history at the prestigious Wellesley College. Watson is a very modern woman, particularly for the 1950s, and has a passion not only for art but for her students. For the most part, the students all seem to be biding their time, waiting to find the right man to marry. The students are all very bright and Watson feels they are not reaching their potential. Altough a strong bond is formed between teacher and student, Watson's views are incompatible with the dominant culture of the college.
Katherine Watson, an Oakland State University Ph.D. student, is hired as an Art History instructor at Wellesley College for the 1953/54 school year. She is not an obvious choice as Wellesley is an exclusive upper crust institution where its faculty, students and alumni generally look down upon "State" universities. Katherine quickly learns that her paper credentials do affect how her students treat her. She also learns that the students are book smart, but do not know how to think for themselves. Their parents and the school administration foster a predetermined path in life for the girls, namely to stick to traditional mores and thoughts, with the primary goal of marrying into a good family. There are pockets of free thinking among faculty and the students, but those thoughts and associated actions are generally quashed by the overall tone of the school. Katherine decides to instill into her students her own beliefs of what is important in learning. Will the students and administration allow Katherine to be contrary to the prescribed thought?
In 1953, free spirited and non-orthodox art history teacher Katherine Ann Watson accepts the challenge of teaching in the conservative Wellesley College. She leaves her boy-friend Paul Moore in California and share a house with the teacher Nancy Abbey and the nurse Amanda. On the first day, her class fails under the leadership of the arrogant Betty Warren and her friends Joan Brandwyn and Giselle Levy, but Katherine is advised by her mates and the Italian teacher Bill Dunbar to not fear the students. Soon Katherine learns that the girls are only waiting to catch Mr. Nice Guy and get married and she fights against the status-quo of Wellesley and to keep her independence.
Set in 1953, Katherine Watson (Roberts) is a free-spirited graduate of UCLA who accepts a teaching post at Wellesley College, a women-only school where the students are torn between the repressive mores of the time and their longing for intellectual freedom.