Teachers and members of the community came to the Music Hall on Thursday night to view the Marion premier of “Passion to Teach.”

Elizabeth Taber Library sponsored the screening of the documentary, directed and produced by Marion residents Sandria Parsons and Bart Nourse. The film takes a look at “maverick” teachers who teach around rather than to “the test,” using creativity and self-directed and hands-on learning.

“Testing has its place,” the movie asserts, “but should it be first place?”

Amy Lake, a middle school teacher in Falls Village, Connecticut, is at the heart of the feature-length film. For Parsons and Nourse, Lake epitomizes the maverick teacher.

“Amy is really a metaphor for all great teachers,” said Parsons

Lake, a long-time teacher, centers her teaching on experiential learning. For example, kids in her class study immigration at Ellis Island by “becoming” the immigrants, going through customs and sometimes getting deported.

She said students have gotten so into the action that they’ve shed tears imagining themselves in the position of immigrants coming to America.

“She’ll come up with some way of getting us hooked in the experience. I’m feeling what they are feeling, so I’m connecting with it more than I would a textbook,” said eighth grader Kyler Hall.

Throughout the film, there are interviews with students, parents and fellow educators in Lake's community who praise her ability to engage students as well as her willingness to dodge top-down standards.

Education experts and maverick teachers from around the country are also featured in the movie as they talk about issues related to standardized testing, the importance of self-directed learning for students and the problem of chronically bored students for whom education is dead.

“The real world is not multiple choice,” said Desiree Pointer-Mace, an associate professor and associate dean at Alverno College.

Parsons said she hopes future teachers, those currently in the profession and parents will be inspired by the film to be and/or encourage maverick teaching.

After the film, Amy Carol, a former Sippican School teacher who now works in Middleboro, agreed with the need to get away from teaching to the test.

“Teachers need to have permission again to teach what they know is right. It’s really hard to in the current culture,” she said.

Tri-town Asst. Superintendent Elise Frangos, a former middle school teacher herself, echoed that sentiment.

She said, “I think we have a lot of maverick teachers. I think they need to be applauded and affirmed.”

Parsons and Nourse hope that will be the opinion of many who see the movie and that it will spark conversation and change.

So far, there have only been two public showings of Passion to Teach, but they are looking to schedule more viewings in the coming months.

For more information on the movie, visit http://www.passiontoteach.org.