Merli--13 episodes

As a teacher myself, I always find it interesting to observe the ways others teach.  Watching Merli was a treat--just had to read subtitles very fast.

Merli is his own man, flouting rules and conventions at every turn.  He's judged harshly by his colleagues at times, but he engages his students and becomes their favorite teacher.

As luck would have it, his teenaged son winds up in his philosophy class, and the boy is angry at having his eccentric father (whose personal life is "messed up") as his teacher.  For one thing, the son is a dancer and gay, and he's not ready to expose those aspects of his life to classmates. For another, he still blames his father for not being the father he wishes he'd had--long divorced from his mother.

This Spanish philosophy class is entirely different from any classes I've ever been in as a student or a teacher in high school or college.  The students call their professors and the principal by their first names, creating casualness and open dialogue.  Students disagree with their teachers in ways that would get them thrown out of most American classrooms, but Merli uses their disagreements to launch provocative dialogues.

The students and teachers talk openly about everything--sex, home life problems, happiness, fears.
Nothing is shrouded in euphemisms or secrecy.  Everyone's secrets wind up coming out and the kids learn to accept the truths about their classmates and teachers without judgment.

One kid has agoraphobia and Merli goes to his house to teach him after hours--which finally leads the boy outside and back to school.

Kids fall in love, break up, fall in love with somebody else, kiss in the hallways, yell at each other, tell secrets they promised not to tell, and criticize their parents and teachers--all the things that teenagers do in the real world.