Is anyone as excited as I am after seeing the trailer for the new Friends reunion that was just released? The sight of the characters of friends immediately made me want to go back and rewatch the show from the beginning. Let’s be real, I can recite every piece of dialogue on all pages of script (FRONT AND BACK)!
It also got me wondering…what would our favorite friends be like as teachers? How would their personalities fair in front of the classroom?
I consider myself somewhat of a Friends connoisseur. As someone who is also an experienced teacher, I feel as though I could do a good job of predicting what a classroom run by each of these characters would be like.
We’re going over the good, the bad, and the ugly naked guy.
Be sure to comment below by sharing what you agree with and what I may have gotten wrong.
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The Characters of Friends As Teachers Criteria:
There will be 4 main categories that we will use to assess the cast members’ teaching potential. These are:
Character #1-Phoebe Buffay
Planning skills: ⅖
Phoebe often has her head in the clouds, meaning her organizational skills are not exactly on point. Chances are, Phoebe would not be the greatest at organizing a unit or planning, but she would find a way to get it done. Remember when Ross went to the wrong airport to profess his love to Rachel? Phoebe somehow found a way to get Ross across town and to the right airport in time.
Content Knowledge: ⅕
Phoebe is the most out there when it comes to her ideas and overall sense of reality. As a teacher, likely, the majority of her lessons would not be founded on facts. If a student challenged her knowledge on something, it wouldn’t be surprising if she referred to sources such as Regina Phalange or her French relative Nestle Tollhouse.
Student engagement: 5/5
One thing is for sure…Phoebe’s students would never be bored. Sure, they may get confused or give a funny look after hearing her speak about her psychic and time-traveling abilities, but Phoebe would always keep the entertainment going!
Classroom management:⅖
Remember the time Phoebe babysat the triplets in Monica and Chandler’s apartment? Monica almost fainted from seeing the path of destruction the babies left. Teachers tend to be very protective of their space, so I can only imagine a teacher having the same reaction as Monica when picturing Phoebe being allowed to take control of their classroom space.
I picture Phoebe’s classroom management style being more of a free-for-all.
The overall score for Phoebe: 3/5
Characters of Friends #2-Chandler Bing
Planning skills:4/5
I think many would assume that Chandler would not be very good at planning or organizing his students’ learning. However, when you think of it, Chandler could come up with some great teaching units for his students.
For one, he is creative. He switched careers and became successful in advertising, which I would assume you need to have a strong sense of creativity.
And secondly, he is always helping Joey learn valuable life lessons.
Content Knowledge: ⅘
Chandler seems to be pretty smart. I think he would be best suited as an ELA teacher. Remember, the show refers to Chandler’s passion for writing several times throughout the series.
Student engagement: 5/5
Students love funny teachers, am I right?? I think students would engage with Chandler’s childlike sense of humor. Whether parents would appreciate their students being taught by someone who laughs at “pull my finger” jokes and the word “duty”
Classroom management:⅖
This is definitely Chandler’s downfall. Chandler would lean more towards the fun teacher than the “keep things organized” teacher. After all, Chandler is married to the most organized woman on the planet, so there’s no real need for him to worry about things like organization and cleanliness.
Chandler’s overall score: 3/5
Character #3-Monica Geller
Planning skills:5/5
Planning what you’re going to have other people do. That sounds like it would be Monica’s dream. So much so, I’m actually surprised she didn’t become a teacher. Then I remember she gets to bark orders at people while holding a sharp knife (not exactly acceptable in a classroom setting). Monica would plan her school year to the tee. She would have her curriculum mapping completed before the school year even got started.
Content Knowledge: ⅘
Is Monica the smartest of her friends? No. But she would work her little butt off to be the best teacher there ever was. She would be up all night learning everything she needed to know. She would want all of the praise and stars of achievement.
Student engagement: ⅖
As mentioned, Monica would be great at planning and knowing all the teacher things there is to know. But would students care to learn from her? Probably not. Even her own nephew didn’t care too much for her.
I think she’d be one of those teachers who would want everything done her way. So much so, that she’d suck the fun out of everything.
Click here to check out student engagement strategies.
Classroom management:5/5
As mentioned, Monica was made to run a classroom. She would definitely run a tight ship, but nobody can argue that her class wouldn’t run smoothly. Not a single sheet of paper would be out of order.
Monica’s overall score: 4/5
Characters of Friends #4-Joey Tribbiani
Planning skills:⅕
Planning and forethought are not exactly Joey’s strengths. I think the most we ever saw Joey plan for is a hot date. There are numerous examples of him lacking to plan for anything work-related, such as forgetting about audition times. Needless to say, planning his teaching lessons would not be top of mind for our loveable Italian actor.
Content Knowledge: ⅕
Unless whatever Joey is teaching can be found in the book “V” of the Encyclopedia, chances are, Joey doesn’t know about it.
Student engagement: ⅘
If there’s one thing Joey can do, it is keeping people engaged and having a good time. Students would love his creative activities such as Fireball and throwing wet paper towels on the wall.
How fun would a game of Bamboozled be to get students engaged in their learning?
Classroom management:⅖
I can just picture it now…Walking into a classroom and finding Joey locked in the cupboard because a student bet him he couldn’t fit inside. Keeping students in line and on-task while managing the classroom space would be absolute chaos!
Joey’s overall score:2/5
Characters of Friends #5-Rachel Green
Planning skills:⅗
This one is a bit of a toss-up. If we are talking about Rachel in the early years, I would say that Rachel’s planning skills would be terrible. The girl struggled with getting coffee orders right, so there’s no way she would be able to plan based on her students’ needs.
However, as the years went on, Rachel went on to be what appeared to be in a high-level position at a major fashion design company. That’s got to mean that Rachel got her stuff together.
Content Knowledge: ⅖
I think we can all agree that Rachel isn’t the sharpest crayon in the crayon box. She’s not Joey status when it comes to brains (or lack thereof), but she would struggle with teaching.
Student engagement: 3/5
Rachel often doubted herself and her ability to relate to children. However, there are a couple of examples of Rachel making connections with kids on the show. For one, the time Rachel taught Ben some pranks he could pull on his parents. Secondly, she sang “Baby Got Back” to Emma to stop her from crying. I would argue that Rachel would be the “fun teacher”.
Click here to read my recent post about student engagement.
Classroom management:⅖
This one’s tough. Rachel lived with Monica for the better part of the series, so she never had to show off her organization and management skills. Based on Rachel’s often forgetfulness(remember how she forgot to throw a bridal shower for Monica, even though she was the maid of honor), I had to give her a lower score for this one.
Rachel’s overall score: 3/5
Character #6-Ross Geller
Planning skills:⅘
Ross is at an unfair advantage here, because he ACTUALLY IS a teacher. Not taking that into consideration, Ross seems like an organized, sensible adult. He is the only one of our friends who lived alone for the majority of the series, meaning he self-managed his life.
Content Knowledge: 5/5
I think most of us would agree that Ross is the most book smart of all of our friends. I don’t think there’s much need to explain this further.
Student engagement: ⅖
While Ross is the smartest of the characters of friends, he can often be seen boring his friends to death. Additionally, when Ross landed a teaching job at the university, he would bore his students all of the time. I can’t even imagine Ross trying to explain anything to little elementary students.
(Insert image of ross boring friends)
Classroom management:⅘
Ross is very particular about his space. He likes his fossils in a particular spot and doesn’t like when they are moved. Also, Ross enjoys a nice aesthetic (Hello, Pottery Barn), which tells me his classroom would look nice and function well as a learning space for students.
Ross’ overall score: 4/5
Final Thoughts….
You may be hoping that I would rank the characters of friends based on who would make the best teacher. Instead, I want to hear from you!
Do you agree with my scores? Who do YOU think would be the best/worst teacher? Comment below!
