(originally posted 11 May 2012)
Ok….so I went to see the movie “Bully“. Sadly both times I was there; the theatre was quite empty.
I would like to follow up with the children and their families who were in the documentary to see if things have improved for their children and how? If not, what steps, if any have been taken? I’m also curious to learn what each of these communities and their education, police, health care, etc have done to improve the safety of ALL their children.
It’s strange huh? I wonder how many of our local educators went to see this movie. After all “The Hunger Games”, was a field trip for many of our Ontario elementary and secondary schools. I guess there is more value in exposing children/youth to a movie that depicts killing each other to win their right to survive…really looking at Bullying. Oh sorry the school permission form for this trip says “Learning Expectations for the trip: students will be viewing the film adaption of the novel ‘The Hunger Games’.” Not that either of my children who ‘had’ to attend this field trip had the “The Hunger Games” as a class novel study.
I wonder how they discussed the ‘film adaptation of the novel’ against the book if many of the children never read it. I’m guessing there wasn’t much ‘discussing’ going on in most of those classrooms either – at least of any academic value. Oh well, our Ontario academic education ratings are so high, our children certainly can afford to have their teachers ‘kill’ 3 hours of their classroom learning time sitting in a movie theatre several times a year/semester.
Now, had they gone to see “Bully”, I’m imagine there would have been lots of opportunity for meaningful discussion. Even if the discussion wasn’t academic, it certainly would be more in tune with what is happening in their class, their school their day-to-day lives then “The Hunger Games” is. Both the adults and students might have been able to see/learn what BULLYING is and the role everyone plays in either enabling or disabling it.
Responsible use of technology in schools provides real life learning opportunities. However, I’ve always had a problem with my children watching movies in class; especially when the movie choice of the teacher offers NO education value!
Your thoughts…..
