Throughout the six seasons of Glee, a wide roster of characters circulated in and out of the doors of William McKinley High School, but one of the few characters to stick around consistently throughout each season was the coach of the New Directors, William Schuester. "Mr. Schue" ended up having a personal relationship with nearly every member of the Glee club throughout the years, since he was the show's central mentor figure and also endured some emotional development himself.
While he may not have been relatable to viewers at the time in the same way that characters like Rachel, Finn, and Kurt were, he was still vital to the show and went on to become one of Glee's most appreciated characters. Some of the most memorable moments of Glee featured Mr. Schuester, whether he was teaching the students a valuable lesson or was stepping out of his comfort zone as a teacher in order to do a rap performance to inspire the of the Glee club.
Though Mr. Schuester was truly a great character, he wasn't necessarily perfect. Throughout the course of the series, there were quite a few issues surrounding Mr. Schue -- and they don't just include character flaws he overcame throughout the show's narrative. Like many of the other characters of Glee, Mr. Schue was occasionally written inconsistently, whereas other moments featured Mr. Schue overstepping his abilities as a teacher into some rather dangerous and illegal grounds.
With this in mind, here are 20 Things That Make No Sense About Mr. Schuester From Glee.
He Never Faced Consequences For Performing Raunchy Songs In Front Of Students
Many of the of the New Directions had a lot of fun performing some rather inappropriate and raunchy songs with the rest of the glee club, and Mr. Schuester was no exception. Some of Mr. Schuester's most notable raunchy performances were "Thong Song", "Gold Digger", "A Little Less Conversation", and "Nice to Meet You, Have I Slept With You?"
While it was already pushing it for Will to allow his students to sing inappropriate songs in class, performing these songs himself pushed his incompetence to a whole new level. All another teacher had to do was by the choir room during one of Will's performances for him to get caught, yet he never faced any negative repercussions for his inappropriately provocative performances in front of a bunch of minors.
How Did His Relationship With Terrie Last So Long?
When Glee first started, Will Schuester was still married to Terrie, a truly horrible woman who manipulated Will and made his life completely miserable. While this added a certain level of conflict for the first two seasons of Glee, it begs the question, how did these two even last so long in the first place?
While Will seemed to look fondly on the early days of their relationship in season one, in later seasons, he stated that he was always miserable with Terrie, even when they were "high school sweethearts." If season four of Glee told us anything, it's that high school sweethearts don't last, even if they are perfect (which Will and Terrie certainly were not). How these two managed to stay together for almost two decades is an absolute mystery.
He Suddenly Becomes Great At Choreography
Throughout the first half of season one of Glee, the New Directions started to doubt Mr. Schuester as a teacher when they realized he was horrible at choreography, barely being able to dance himself. This led the students to hire an outside choreographer behind Mr. Schuester's back, creating a bit of conflict between Will and his students.
However, in later seasons, this particular character flaw seemed to completely disappear. Not only was Mr. Schuester able to give proper choreography after this point in the show, but he was also able to throw down some rather impressive dance moves himself. Though it's possible he took some choreography classes, this was never acknowledged, making his improved dance abilities seem like they came out of nowhere just for plot convenience.
He Used Illegal Substances To Blackmail A Student
In the very first episode of Glee, Mr. Schuester was shown to be a truly awful high school teacher. While he certainly had a positive attitude and was dedicated to his students, he did something absolutely unforgivable as a teacher: framing one of his students and blackmailing him.
After learning that the student Finn Hudson was a decent singer, Will tried to recruit him to the New Directions. After his first attempt at asking Finn to failed, Will acquired a small dosage of illegal substances. He then confronted Finn and faked finding the substances in his locker. Will then blackmailed Finn, threatening to have him expelled and to take away his scholarship unless he ed his singing club. That's pretty harsh and not a great ethic for a high school teacher to follow.
He Was Never Fired For His Constant Feuding With Sue
One of the most interesting conflicts throughout the series was the constant feuding between Mr. Schuester and Sue Sylvester. While the beginning of Glee featured their feuding as a one way street, with Sue constantly trying to sabotage Will, Will eventually started feuding back, going so far as to sabotage Sue a few times.
While their feuding was certainly entertaining, it had an incredibly negative impact on the students, worsening their school experience and making them feel like they couldn't speak up while the two staff were fighting. While it makes sense why Sue wasn't fired for her actions, considering her impressive history as an award-winning coach, Will didn't have quite as strong of a résumé for the school to keep him. Typically in these types of aggressive conflicts, a school would let the least important of the teachers go, yet Will managed to stay at the school for several years.
How Did He Get His Job In The First Place?
During the first few seasons of Glee, Mr. Schuester worked at the school as a teacher of the language from Spain. However, it is never clarified why Mr. Schue came on board as a teacher in the first place, as he doesn't seem to have much experience with the language. Season three goes more in depth with his incompetence as a teacher, revealing that he really does not know how to speak the language and had been teaching it improperly the whole time.
While it would be understandable for an inexperienced language teacher like Mr. Schuester to get a job as a teacher at a middle school, or even an elementary school, his abilities to speak the language of Spain were well below the high school level, making us wonder why he was given a job in that department in the first place.
Allowing Students To His Personal A Capella Group Should've Been Against School Policy
Most schools tend to have rules against allowing teachers to spend time with their students outside of school activities, especially public high schools. With this in mind, it should've been completely against school policy for Mr. Schuester to recruit his students Puck and Finn to his personal a Capella group. With his two students, outside of a school event, Will performed the song "I Wanna S*x You Up", which really doesn't make the situation look too great.
To make matters worse, one of the other of Will's a Capella group was Sandy Ryserson, a former teacher at the high school who had just recently been fired for inappropriately touching another student. All in all, this a Capella group should have been a huge red flag for the school's istration.
His Brief Relationship With Shelby Corcoran
At the beginning of the second half of season one, things seemed to be looking up for Will Schuester. He was back to work with the Glee club, he was out of the worst relationship of his life, and he was finally dating Emma Pillsbury. However, in the very first episode after the hiatus, which was also the first episode Will was with Emma, Will went and was unfaithful to his new girlfriend with the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, Shelby Corcoran.
While Will and Shelby's time together was really only a brief make-out session, it was not a good moment for Will, and it really came out of nowhere. What really made this scene so unbearable, however, was the fact that this huge mistake made by Will had no consequences whatsoever.
He Didn't Handle The Conflict With Bryan Ryan Well
In the episode "Dream On", Will's old high school nemesis Bryan Ryan, played by Neil Patrick Harris, comes back into Will's life. Bryan reveals that he is now one of the top board of the school and is strongly considering cutting the Glee club. With the New Directions now on the verge of being wiped out, Will takes it upon himself to convince Bryan otherwise by inviting him to a night out.
Will and Bryan first stop at a bar, but then Will gets the bright idea for them to both go audition for the local production of Les Misérables, which ends with Will being offered the lead role. In other words, Will's solution to stopping Bryan from getting rid of the Glee club was to embarrass him by beating him in an audition, and then being surprised when Bryan still wants to get rid of the Glee club. Overall, it's not a great plan.
His Morality Isn't Always Consistent
Some of Will's greatest moments as a teacher were when he witnessed a student being bullied or "slushied" in the hallway and then stepped in to stand up for the student, often disciplining the bullies. However, this evidently isn't something that Will always did, as there were a number of instances throughout the series where a student was being bullied in a hallway and Will chose to look the other way, or to watch without intervening.
While Will stepping up to stop bullying says something about his character, the times he didn't step up said something more about who he is as a person. While he doesn't like bullies, he isn't always willing to put himself in the middle in order to protect a student.
