Reviews Series / Girl Meets World

What is up with these classrooms?

Disclaimer: This is my first review. It's being written at 2 AM, and I DO like this show as well as its predecessor.

First, the nitpicks:

• Since I'm not from NYC this may be a moot point, but why are there chalkboards? It's 2015.

• Corey's lessons are quite erratic without a logical flow to them, but this was a problem with Feeny in BMW too.

The real issue: Every episode I look at the scenes in the classrooms and think, "What are they doing?"

Scenes that take place during class are extended for far too long. Corey and the main characters have extended talks about the episode's conflict in the middle of class. This is okay if it's done once in a while, but it seems to occur every episode which I believe ruins the drama of more deserving moments (like a kid breaking down uncontrollably). I sit there thinking of the extra students, and how unprofessional this environment is.

I was forgiving of the first season because those are almost always awkward. In fact, I loved the second season premier "Girl Meets Gravity" because it addressed this problem: for once Riley and Maya were the "extras" of the classroom. I was hoping the show became aware of this problem and wouldn't do it as frequently, but I was wrong.

"Girl Meets the New Teacher" is a particularly egregious case for me. The principal hijacks the class because "comic books are banned" without waiting to see the content. This is a major no-no. Even if the lesson was a flop, the principal doesn't correct and FIRE the teacher in front of the students (thank God Topanga later pointed out you can't fire a teacher on the spot later in the episode).

The point is, teaching is a high stress job. One of the major factors is time management. They get ~50 minutes to teach their lesson plan, and that time flies by fast. I'm not surprised by the presence of conflicts erupting in the middle of class, but teachers are trained to avoid dialogues that take away from their time. That's why they move into the hallway, have book work ready, or wait till after class.

Are schools perfect? No. My issue stems from what appears to be a lack of research for schools and dramatic timing. Granted, my experiences are with Midwest public schools, so maybe class management is different in New York (the show's setting) or California (where it's made).