Last night I watched School of Rock, which is now out on DVD.

It's a strange movie. I can't decide whether it has a lot to say about education or nothing at all, whether it tunes in to significant new trends or is pure fairy tale, proving nothing and illustrating nothing, other than the fact that people like to be entertained. On the whole, I would say, the latter.

So, given that I'm somewhat confused about what, if anything, it signifies, I'll retreat to describing what happens. There should probably be a SPOILER warning here. I may well be about to tell you the entire plot. If you don't want to read this, probably best to stop now. But on the other hand, would you really be amazed to learn that the teacher at the centre of this movie, played by Jack Black, is keen on rock and roll, that he infects his pupils with his enthusiasm, that they do a performance of some rock and roll which goes very well, and that this process is at first opposed by surrounding adults, but that said adults end up being won over? Did you expect the movie to end in a mass execution, or to be about a bunch of hard core juvenile rock and rollers who turn against rock and roll and switch to Indian Classical? Or to be about geology?

The fairy tale aspect of the movie is that a bunch of ten year olds prove so quickly to be expert rockers, after only the most rudimentary guidance from Teacher Jack. There is an expert guitarist in the class, an expert drummer, some expert backing singer girls, an expert keyboard player. Weird. It's almost as if they weren't a regular class of children at all, but rather a bunch of child actor/musicians who were chosen from among thousands of auditioners for their ultra-winning personalities and musical and drama excellence.

Which they were, of course, and that's the clue. This movie is at least as much an adult fantasy of juvenile efficacy and biddableness as it is a tale of juvenile assertion. These kids are not real kids – and certainly not typical kids – so much as adult fantasies of what kids ought to be like.

Which makes the placing of rock and roll at the centre of things so strange. The Jack Black character constantly insists that rock and roll is all about getting angry with authority, challenging those in power, screaming back at "the Man", blah blah. Well, maybe. But if so, what kind of rock and roll rebels, when told to do rock and rock, answer by saying Yessir!! and doing it, exactly as Mr Black wants?

At the start of the movie, the children first confronted by Jack Black's bogus substitute teacher are unwelcome to him only in the sense that they are excessively obedient. They all sit in quiet and obedient rows and demand homework and credits and proper teaching. They start out, in other words, as one adult fantasy of how children should be.

And they are then transformed by Jack Black into another such fantasy. The one where the kids all decide that they share their parents' tastes in pop music.

Jack Black appoints himself the lead singer of his juvenile rock and roll group, and in the final rock and roll show, he continues to be the lead singer. If that isn't Embarrassing Dad living out his schoolboy fantasies, I don't know what is.

Rock and roll used to turn schools upside down. Now it is just another school subject. I can remember how at my school all those years ago, there used to be something called the school "Dance Band", which was a dutiful and very pale imitation of the Glen Miller orchestra (which was itself something of a pale imitation of original twenties swing). That wasn't juvenile rebellion either. It was the final domestication of swing music.

It's tempting, so I'll do it, to say that this movie embodies the central self-contradiction of current adult views about education in particular and the life of children in general. Children should be completely free to do … exactly what we want them to do. They should be allowed to respond at an emotional level … with our emotions. They should be free to dream and to live out … our dreams. And then they should get great jobs as financial analysts and have two point four kids of their own.

Ten years olds are indeed extraordinarily willing to get excited about what their parents are excited about. But the stuff they eventually get seriously stuck into is the stuff they choose for themselves.

Meanwhile, further proof that this is as much a movie about adult fantasies as about childhood fun is that there is a rather sweet romantic subplot bubbling along inside this movie, centred on the lady head of the school, played by Joan Cusack. She becomes fond of Jack Black despite and then because of his rock and rollness. She, it emerges, is an ex rock and roll fan, a Stevie Nicks mimic, a former rock chick. But, faced with the demands of her school's parents, she has mutated into the Bitch Head Mistress from Hell who terrifies all of her pupils into sitting in those obedient rows and demanding home work and teaching. Sadly, however, just when Our Jack was about to take off her glasses and say "why you're beautiful" to her, the movie ends, with the triumphant rock and roll performance by Jack Black and the Kids From Fame, sorry, by Jack Black and his class of randomly assembled children.

This movie was written with Jack Black in mind and he holds it all together energetically, daring you not to enjoy it, demanding that you play along with all its absurdities and implausibilities. I did quite enjoy it, more than I feared, less than I hoped.

I see that in my earlier posting about this movie, written long before I'd seen it, I see that I said this:

… Most of the reviews say that it is good old-fashioned frothy Hollywood comedy with its heart in the right place and saved from schmaltz by being well and winningly performed.

That's about right. But this …

And when I do see School of Rock I will seek out the serious educational ideas that are sure to be contained in it, and report back to you all.

… didn't work out so well. Oh well. It makes a change from this kind of thing.