Introduction to Teaching
| "Introduction to Teaching" | |
|---|---|
| Community episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 2 |
| Directed by | Jay Chandrasekhar |
| Written by | Andy Bobrow |
| Production code | 502 |
| Original air date | January 2, 2014 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Introduction to Teaching" is the second episode of the fifth season of Community, and the 86th episode overall in the series. It originally aired on January 2, 2014 on NBC; and was written by Andy Bobrow and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar.
Jeff Winger finds himself having difficulty teaching his new class, "Fundamentals of Law", and finds himself suffering some ridicule from Greendale students, due to his nonchalant attitude, and his demeanor which is more akin to a student than a teacher.
He shares an office with Buzz Hickey (Jonathan Banks), who has been teaching for 15 years, and is Annie's Criminology Professor. Abed begins taking a class discussing actor Nicolas Cage, and whether he should be considered a "good" or "bad" actor. Annie and Jeff begin to fight over Jeff's attitude and unwillingness to take his class seriously. She later enrolls in the class in order to put pressure on him to do a better job.
Meanwhile, Jeff and Hickey begin to bond, and Hickey proves to be a very intense individual. It is also revealed that virtually none of Greendale's professors take their jobs seriously.
Abed begins to obsess over Nicolas Cage, being unable to determine whether he is a good or bad actor for the class, and he suffers a nervous breakdown in class, inadvertently emulating some of Cage's more "over the top" performances. He is eventually comforted by Shirley, after discovering the two share a mutual fandom of the Hellraiser movie series.
Hickey suggests that Jeff give Annie "A-" grades on her work, as it will drive a perfectionist like her crazy. He also suggests that teachers invented the "minus" score for lettered grades as a way to give students they don't like the illusion of a lower score even though the "minus" mark has no actual meaning. Jeff opts not to after eventually discovering that he enjoys teaching thanks to an in-class fight with Annie where he uses his skills as a lawyer to win the argument, causing his class to suddenly become interested.
Hickey gives Annie an "A-" on one of her criminology projects, causing her to become frustrated and decide to drop Jeff's class, so she can devote more time to Hickey's. Jeff confronts Hickey about this fact, and Hickey reveals he did it to try to help keep Annie off of Jeff's back in class.
Jeff tells Annie that the "minus" is a meaningless grade by teachers who don't like their students, causing her to create a small riot on campus. Jeff attempts to stop the riot with a speech, only for the students to further turn on him.
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