Anthony DeMartino: Difference between revisions

From the very beginning of the show, he is shown as having become ''very'' disillusioned with his role as an educator. One of the show's running gags was Mr. DeMartino's bitterness over his low salary and disgust at the incompetence of several of his students, particularly [[Brittany Taylor]] and [[Kevin Thompson]], who never seemed to make any effort to succeed in his class, and, if their classroom performance was any indication of their abilities, may have been educationally incompetent to the point of functional illiteracy and therefore thoroughly unteachable in a conventional classroom setting. Principal Li has a standing order that DeMartino is to be no longer request retirement ''during'' classes. In "[[Is Itit Fall Yet?"]], in his lowest hour, he broke down at the idea that he was just "no good at working with young people".

In "[[Is It Fall Yet?]]", he reached a dark night of the soul where he could no longer remember why he had wanted to be a teacher. His doctor ordered him to volunteer at the [[Okay To Cry Corral]] for sensitive young children. To his utter amazement and joy, he found out the young campers thought "Uncle Anthony" was cool and constantly turned to him for aide; at one point, snapping at the arts and crafts, he threw a sink through the window and led the cheering hordes on a hike. At the end of the movie, after the campers demanded "Uncle Anthony" give the end-of-camp speech, he remarked that the experience has rekindled his love for teaching and gave advice to the campers: "if you feel yourself getting mad, '''go ahead!''' If someone's doing something to irritate you, '''tell them about it in detail!''' And '''hike... whenever you FEEL like it!'''"

He was the head of the teacher's union at Lawndale and had led a failed strike once before. In "[[Lucky Strike]]", he took the faculty on strike once again and led them to victory through sheer force of will and threats to Li that he would picket naked.