Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles. - jgp3553@yahoo.com

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. - garykmcd

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? - Huggo

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. - Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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. - Anonymous