THE LAST REVIEW packets had been tucked into book bags, the last bell had rung, and the school had emptied out for winter break. Dr. Barrios should have felt relieved.

Instead, he paced the newly empty hallways, filled with apprehension.

He and his wife had gone to the theater last night for a local preview of How the Status Quo Stole Christmas.

The trailers had been on TV for weeks. In them, Nick Wallabee knelt next to the desks of an enthralled Mexican girl and delighted African American boy while a caption flashed across the bottom of the screen: The status quo says Consuelo and Jamal don’t deserve an education. Who will stand up and say they do?

Cut to: Nick Wallabee striding through school hallways, Nick Wallabee speaking passionately into a microphone, Nick Wallabee standing outside the school administration building, the sun bathing him in a prophetic glow. Even in the trailers, the scene was uncomfortably familiar. And so maybe Dr. Barrios should have known exactly what he’d see in that movie theater. Maybe he even did.

But that didn’t mean he was prepared.

Sneaking looks at the audience around him, Dr. Barrios saw the expressions of the thousands who would soon be watching the movie throughout the country. Maybe millions. There were projections that the documentary’s success would rival some of the biggest hits in the inspiring-teacher genre, maybe even reaching the level of Show Me You Care and I’ll Show You My Homework.

Mr. Weber swore this was only because of the marketing budget provided by Global Schoolhouse Productions, but it wasn’t just that. Even Dr. Barrios had to admit the movie had a way of grabbing one by the emotional jugular vein and holding on tight. There was the scene, for example, in which Jamal helped his grandmother rise from her wheelchair, and then later the montage of Consuelo feeding and caring for a stray puppy, all to the soundtrack of a children’s choir singing “Wind Beneath My Wings.” By the end, when Nick Wallabee showed up at an elementary school to pass out books, the whole audience was sniffing back tears.

But the most famous moment of the film, the moment that would get picked up by TV shows and referenced endlessly, was when Nick Wallabee, standing in front of the school administration building, delivered his iconic lines to the principal of a failing school.

I’m expecting school leaders to stand up for student achievement, not just sit in the stands defending the status quo.

Dr. Barrios felt his wife’s smooth palm covering his hand in the darkness.

We’ve got too many students who can win on the football field but not in college and the workforce.

The audience knew what was coming and leaned toward the screen to receive it.

I ask you, Dr. Barrios: Are you a leader who will do whatever it takes to win for children? With that, Nick Wallabee strode away in his lean, tailored suit. Only the principal remained on-screen, heavy and uncomfortable and covering his face, his armpit gushing as if the very idea of believing in children activated his sweat glands.

The visual metaphor was unmistakable: transformational change vs. the status quo.

David vs. Goliath.

Compare and contrast.