In 1953, Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), a 30 something grad student from California, takes a position teaching "History of Art" at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts because she wants to make a difference and influence the next generation of women.
At her first class Katherine discovers that the girls have already memorised the entire syllabus from the textbook so she instead uses the classes to introduce them to Modern Art and encourages spirited classroom discussions about topics such as what is good art and what does the Mona Lisa's smile mean. This brings her into conflict with the conservative College President who warns Katherine to stick to the syllabus if she wants to keep her job.
Katherine comes to know many of the students in her class well and seeks to inspire them to seek more than marriage to an eligible young man. Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) dreamt of being a lawyer and enrolled as pre-law so Katherine encourages her to apply for Yale, which she gets into. Joan, however, elopes with her fiancée Tommy, is very happy and decides she wants to be nothing more than a wife and mother after graduation and asks Katherine to respect her choice.
Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst) is highly conservative like her mother the head of the Alumnae Association. Betty doesn't understand why Katherine is not married and is strident in insisting that there is a universal standard for good art. She writes two editorials for the college paper, one which exposes the nurse for giving out contraception which gets her fired, and one attacking Katherine for advocating that women should seek a career instead of just being wives and mothers as intended. Betty can't wait to marry Spenser as their parents have arranged and expects to get the traditional exemptions from attending class because she is married, but Katherine insists she will be marked on merit.
Connie Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin) is dating Betty's cousin Charlie but Betty persuades her that he is only using her since it has been arranged by his parents for him to marry Deb, a girl more of his social standing, so they break up. However, Charlie had already decided for himself that that was not going to happen and they get back together. Giselle Levey (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has liberal views and supports Katherine because she sees her as having chosen what she wants in her life. Giselle brazenly has affairs with a professor and a married man.
Katherine confides to the girls that she was engaged when young but that they were separated by the war and the relationship fizzled out and that she has had several affairs. Katherine declines a proposal from her boyfriend in California because she doesn't love him enough. She begins seeing the professor of Italian, Bill Dunbar (Dominic West) who is charming and full of stories about Europe and his heroic actions in Italy during the war. He has also had affairs with many students including Giselle so Katherine makes him promise that that will never happen again. However, when she discovers that he actually spent the entire war at the Army Languages Centre on Long Island she decides he untrustworthy and breaks up with him. Dunbar responds that Katherine didn't come to Wellesley to help the students but to try and find herself.
Betty's marriage fails miserably. Spenser is soon spending as much time as possible away in New York on business and is also spotted by Giselle conducting an affair. Betty's mother tries to pressure Betty into not divorcing him at least for a while to avoid scandal for the families. Betty asks her mother if the Mona Lisa's smile means she is happy. At graduation Betty tells Katherine that she is divorcing Spenser and is going to share a flat in Greenwich Village with Giselle and is considering applying for law at Yale, which impresses Katherine.
Katherine's course was highly popular and there is large demand for places the next year so the college invites her to return. However, the President and Betty's mother impose conditions on Katherine that she must follow the syllabus, submit lesson plans for approval and not talk to the girls about anything other than classes. Katherine decides to leave and heads off explore Europe for herself.
This is the first time for me watching a movie where the students are knowlegdeable and able to understand what the syllabus that the teacher are going to teach only by doing their own revision. This situation really scare me A LOT and I did not think i'll be able to SURVIVE if I come intact with this kind of students!
Anyway, i've came across with this situation once during my school days. there was a new teacher in our school when i was in Form 5 and we could tell that she is a fresh graduate teacher through her talked and introduction session during the school weekly assembly. Unfortunately, for a fresh graduate like her who has little experience on teaching and did not know the students yet, she were assigned to teach our class, which is in advance class. When she started her teaching, she was so pale knowing that we already knew what she's going to teach and this situation happened in a week. Finally she burst into tears and we got scolded by principal for treating her like that.Poor her~
In this story, i can see that Katherine Ann Watson is a fighter where, although at first she was shocked knowing that her students already know the contents of the book, she did not easily gave up on teaching her students. in fact, after knowing that her students already learned what they should learn, she teached her students new ways of looking not only the arts but also life itself. she teached her students on how to appreciate something which women at that point of time did not be able to find; freedom in their life and decision making. Not only that she could handle the naughty students easily, but she also be able to knock a sense in her married student's mind by stating the truth on what she would be able to do in her life without being ordered by anyone else.
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