Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Films in schools

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Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 03-26-2002, 02:34 AM:

I was watching the evening news tonight and they reported on the Federal Way (Seattle, Washington) School District banning all non-G rated movies from school classrooms. And even full length G rated films were "discouraged" as being part of the class curriculum. I found this to be absurd, and am a bit angered by the decision.

They were citing films like "Saving Private Ryan," and "The Patriot" as being too violent to be used as teaching material. Most of the worlds history IS "R" rated, and i'd go so far as to say that the majority of the classics in Literature are at least "PG-13" While i agree that parental permission should be required (as was the case when i was in school for watching movies, and performing frog dissections, field trips, etc.) I think that films, well crafted films at least, are invaluable learning tools. This goes WAY beyond the war epics. I can remember numerous times when a film presentation greatly enhanced the "book learning": "Chinatown" while studying the roots of Californian Suburbanization, The Marx Brothers while studing the evolution of Comedy, "Amistad" and the black slave trade, the list goes on and on. (although the day we watched Monty Pythons Holy Grail in Latin class because the priests had one line in latin was a bit much! ) Film adaptions of classic texts also can be utilized to drive home concepts and themes. Think of the lively contrasts between Baz's (leo dicaprio's) Romeo and Juliet and (Gwyneth Paltrow's) Shakespeare in Love.

Finally, I don't understand the logic in allowing G rated films in the classroom. How much can be learned from The Princess Diaries, anyway?!

Anyway, i'm opening this thread to find out not only you're reactions to this, but also to find out what films you remember watching in school (or while in school) that helped you understand "the bigger picture" in the world. Needless to say, when i have kids, i'm not moving to Federal Way.

-adam

Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 03-26-2002, 04:18 AM:

We saw "I Can Jump Puddles" when I was in school. I don't know that it taught me a lot but it was a good story and good film.

cheers Peter

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-26-2002, 07:32 AM:

IMHO, it all depends on the teachers. The rating system is there (in this country, at least) to regulate what kids can and can't see in an unsupervised setting, e.g. a theatre and at home on video. In recognition that these are two very different environments, it's not uncommon for a film to be certificated differently for these two forms of release. For example (if memory serves me correctly) Amistad was certificated 12 for theatrical release and 15 for home video. For a long time Reservoir Dogs was certificated 18 for theatrical and not allowed at all on home video.

When you're watching stuff in classrooms, the teacher is selecting which clips or complete films the kids are going to see, and (if they're any good as teachers) doing other work with the children to put them in context. Using films as teaching aids is very different from showing them as entertainment. So I really can't see that a rating system should apply, because the teacher is effectively doing the job of the censorship board. I remember as a 14 year-old child at school being shown footage of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in a history lesson: you can't get much more horrific than that. The history teacher explained why he was showing it and sugegsted some ways of relating the film to other things we'd seen and read about Nazi Germany. I suppose you could say that a bad teacher who hadn't given any thought to the content of his or her lessons could end up frightening kids with such footage, but in that case the teacher training system needs overhauling, because he or she should not have got into a classroom. By simply placing a blanket ban on the use of films in classrooms you're denying good teachers the chance to use them as a positive teaching aid.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-26-2002, 10:33 AM:

Hopefully the schools are licensing the films/videos if the use is outside the classroom. Many people are unaware that they cannot legally show movies in a public setting without licensing them, except for "face-to-face teaching activities":

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/110.html

http://www.mpaa.org/Press/
http://www.mpaa.org/anti-piracy/index.htm

"PUBLIC PERFORMANCE"

"Unauthorized public performances refer to situations where an institution or commercial establishment shows a tape or film to its members or customers without receiving permission from the copyright owner. This includes "public performances" where an admission fee is charged as well as those that are simply offered as an additional service of the establishment."

http://www.ctconfucc.org/news/CONNtact1201/VideoandtheLetteroft.html

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 03-26-2002, 12:52 PM:

Why are they showing movies like that in the classroom? Most films will not have any education value anyway, save for a select few.

When I was in school, the school board made arrangements with a theater in town for a special showing to all the students taking a certain class. Ours was McBeth. (I thought it was a neat way to skip a class or two but it didn't work. ) History and I had trouble co-existing in high school.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-26-2002, 01:58 PM:

I am all for films in school that deal with education. I do think that both the History Channel and Discovery Channels would be a great asset! In any case, Tucson Unified School District had some films about WWII that had some pretty graphic scenes of the concentration camps and death factories, including newsreeel footage of the human medical experiments.

Posted by Glenda Cockrum (Member # 542) on 03-26-2002, 10:54 PM:

Paul, that is exactly what I do with the local high school. We had the 11th and 12th grade history classs in for a showing of " Saving Private Ryan". It worked out very well. Some of the kids are regulars at the theatre, others never came before and I did pick up a good many of them as regular customers because of the showing. The other thing that was really great was the teachers made them pick up every scrap of paper from candies and pitch them in the basket, row by row! And they behaved!! ( Hard not to with the principal sitting within "striking" distance

)
The school is planning on doing this on a quarterly basis if the films "blend" into the study program. They get a good movie at reasonable price, I get an exta show that still makes a profit, all the kids have parent signed release forms to the school if it is R rated. Works out well for all parties.

Posted by Christopher Finn (Member # 938) on 03-27-2002, 12:05 AM:

Well, how is this for NON-educational viewing. In my two years of Astronomy class (1987 & 1988), we had showings of:

SpaceCamp
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Tollbooth

I recall watching La Bamba in Spanish class. I also recall watching To Kill a Mockingbird and The Outsiders in English classes.

I remember watching the cartoon version of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in fourth grade, but that was because our teacher read us the entire series of books throughout the course of the year.

We just had a school sanctioned showing of Ice Age to 350 middle school students this past Friday. We have also had school showings of 13 Days, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings... Makes me kinda envious that we didn't do cool stuff like that back during my tenure.

Posted by Craig Hanham (Member # 1010) on 03-29-2002, 10:47 PM:

As part of english when I was at high school (I was about 16) our Teacher a real film nut showed us 'once upon a time in the west' and 'American werewolf in London'.
Werewolf had a R rating at the time cant remember what.
Point being studying popular and classic films as an example of use of literature and a way of communication is a good way to keep a teenagers interest in a dry subject going and is a lot easier and cheaper than trying to mount a play. It is also easy for the teacher to highlight salient points there and then.
As for the g rating thing , since when did any g rated movie carry any message thats not trite and or intellectually insulting?

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 03-31-2002, 11:01 AM:

Amistad was both "15" for cinemas and video.

But there are other examples:

Film Cinema Video

Ranson 15 18
Con Air 15 18

And the other way around

Rush Hour 15 12

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 03-31-2002, 11:15 AM:

DANG !!! When I went to school I had to watch history, english, & health films....Whoooaaa Weeeee I went to school in the wrong time period.....speaking of school projectors, did anyone else remember the Bell & Howell 16mm sound projector, projecting into a fold mirror to a TV like screen as rear projection.....

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-31-2002, 11:34 AM:

Agreed to all of the comments above about G-rated films not being (in general) very educationally useful, most novels and textbooks containing at least "PG-13"-type material, etc. (In my high-school Latin class, we read Ovid's Ars Amatoria!)

It seems to me that as long as the films are properly licensed (where required) and of educational value, then teachers should be free to show what they want to their classes. And if the teachers cannot be trusted to use good taste and judgment in selecting films (or textbooks, etc.), then why should they be trusted to teach at all? Under the right circumstances, films can be great educational tools for courses in literature and history in particular. Of course, they can also be a waste of time (such as most so-called "educational" films).

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 03-31-2002, 06:12 PM:

On the subject of classification, it is interesting to note (in the UK at least), that local Councils can re-certify a film for their region. Very basically, if you think a film is wrongly certified, you can approach the council for a private screening, and they will then re-certify the film for the region they cover.

Is this exclusive to the UK, or does the US have similar laws?

Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 04-02-2002, 10:41 PM:

I just heard a radio interview with two of the Federal Way teachers who are in opposition to the ban. They claimed that they can’t show such films as Citizen Kane and To Kill a Mockingbird because those films came out before 1968 and are unrated. I don’t know if they really believe this or are trying to stir things up, but if they actually look at the video boxes for these movies they may find ratings anyway, due to re-release in theaters or being forced to get a rating for video due to the similar

-heads at Blockbuster. I know Citizen Kane is rated PG. I can’t believe teachers teaching movies can be this dumb.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-03-2002, 11:14 AM:

Good point about "unrated" films--either those made prior to the institution of the MPAA ratings system or films released afterwards but without a rating?

What about something like "Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould," which was released unrated in 1994, which contains no offensive language or violence (only some veiled drug references) and which would be perfectly appropriate for showing to a music class?

Posted by Rory Burke (Member # 512) on 04-08-2002, 11:08 PM:

HAHAHAHAHA

Thats sooooooooo funny a film class i sat thru the other day was looking at "True Romance and pulp fiction" if those aren't graphicand violent I don't know what is!!!

Rory Burke