Penguins must be good teachers. When watching The Penguin Lessons I immediately thought of My Penguin Friend, a movie I watched last year.
It’s a very similar story. Through sheer coincidence, a penguin attaches itself to a human who is not necessarily interested in the bird, but over time taking care of it, falls in love with the animal. In this case, the human is an English teacher at an Argentinian prep school during the mid 1970-ies, when Argentina was taken over by a military coup which installed a fascist government. 30,000 Argentinian citizens “disappeared” during those years, never to be heard from again. This is the backdrop to the simple lives of a few teachers and school staff who support them. The penguin, seemingly one person at a time, befriends everyone at the school, and all lives are improved. The students pay attention to their studies, the teachers enjoy healthy relationships with the students and each other, and the staff serving them come to know them and include them in their lives.
How does a simple, single penguin accomplish all that?
It happens in My Penguin Friend, and it happens here, in The Penguin Lessons.
Watching this movie in 2025, when activities like those in Argentina in 1976 are occurring in our country today, all I can say is that we could use some penguins just about now.
