EduPop! will explore various representations of teachers and educators as they appear in media: novels, movies, television shows, music, etc. Some representations are wonderful, some terrible but all are presented for fun!
Mallory O’Brien
The West Wing
NBC
1999 – 2006
In one of the most fun moments of the first season of The West Wing, Sam Seaborne, Deputy Communications Director of the White House, is charged to give a tour of the venerable building to his boss’ daughter’s fifth grade class. Assuming his boss’s daughter is one of the students, he confides to the teacher that he is the wrong person to give a tour and actually knows nothing about the White House.
Turns out his boss’ daughter is the teacher, Ms. Mallory O’Brien.
Mallory was a recurring character on The West Wing and is distinguished by her commitment to service and to the public good as evidenced by her job as a public school teacher, a job she holds throughout the series. Clearly, given the status of her family, she could have done anything she wanted, and she did. She wanted to be a teacher.