Movies in the classroom Options

[impala454]

A couple of recent happenings spurred this topic. Curious what you guys think.

#1- http://www.khou.com/news/local/galveston/s...y.6f97d768.html
A teacher in a Clear Creek ISD high school showed Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to her class. I heard this on the radio and one of the parents had called in, she said it was explained to her that the relevance of the movie to the ALGEBRA class it was shown in was the "charts & graphs" depicted in the movie. Pretty friggin pathetic if you ask me. There's no excuse for this kind of crap, and nothing to gain by it.

#2- http://www.kentucky.com/476/story/68870.html
A substitute teacher showed Brokeback Mountain to an 8th grade class.

The substitute asked a student to shut the classroom door at the West Side school, saying: "What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," according to the lawsuit.

All I got to say is.. WTF

[James]

Do you really believe that a teacher can go a career without expressing their political beliefs in class? Whether it be on purpose or by mistake, it will happen. That district policy is a little confusing. Seems like it is written as someone's interpretation because it covers a wide range of topics, but I will address each one:

Teachers are not supposed to use the classroom to transmit personal or political beliefs: impossible. Teachers have to transmit personal beliefs at some point or they will be nothing more than mindless drones to their students.

Both sides of controversial subjects are supposed to be discussed: Prove that the teacher discussed the content of the video from a perspective other than mathematically. Then prove that the teacher didn't follow up with a video from the other side. Good luck with that one. Keep in mind that the only witnesses to the incident are the teacher and the students. Everything else is second-hand knowledge. Given a child's penchant for exaggeration, I don't see how you can rely on their statements as being completely factual.

Movies should have educational purposes only: I addressed this in my initial post. Furthermore, defining "educational purposes" is no easy task as there are many different teaching philosophies. None of the philosophies are wrong if they get results.

Parents must give consent for any movie rated PG, PG-13, or R: Wow, this rule bothers me as a potential future teacher. Obviously, I would never show an R-rated movie to my students, but there are PG movies that I was shown, Stand and Deliver for instance, that I don't feel should warrant permission slips from the parents. I suppose it is always a possibility that the teacher acquired a general permission statement from the parents at the beginning of the year. I would certainly do so to waive the PG and PG-13 requirement. Also, in almost every other country, that movie was rated G.

Given that information on Brokeback Mountain, it probably shouldn't have been shown unless it is considered to be historically accurate and then it should be properly censored to exclude any sex scenes.

[impala454]

Do you really believe that a teacher can go a career without expressing their political beliefs in class? Whether it be on purpose or by mistake, it will happen. That district policy is a little confusing. Seems like it is written as someone's interpretation because it covers a wide range of topics, but I will address each one:

Teachers are not supposed to use the classroom to transmit personal or political beliefs: impossible. Teachers have to transmit personal beliefs at some point or they will be nothing more than mindless drones to their students.

So you can go back and tell me the political affiliation, religion, and stance on public issues of every teacher you've ever had? BS

Both sides of controversial subjects are supposed to be discussed: Prove that the teacher discussed the content of the video from a perspective other than mathematically. Then prove that the teacher didn't follow up with a video from the other side. Good luck with that one. Keep in mind that the only witnesses to the incident are the teacher and the students. Everything else is second-hand knowledge. Given a child's penchant for exaggeration, I don't see how you can rely on their statements as being completely factual.

The teacher didn't follow up with a video from the other side... how is that difficult to prove? The teacher didn't even make that claim... she made the (absolutely BS) claim that it was for teaching algebra.

Movies should have educational purposes only: I addressed this in my initial post. Furthermore, defining "educational purposes" is no easy task as there are many different teaching philosophies. None of the philosophies are wrong if they get results.

So again, you honestly believe that a high school freshman will have some educational benefit to an algebra class by watching this movie? This is highly disturbing to me if our future teachers are going into the workplace with this notion.

Parents must give consent for any movie rated PG, PG-13, or R: Wow, this rule bothers me as a potential future teacher. Obviously, I would never show an R-rated movie to my students, but there are PG movies that I was shown, Stand and Deliver for instance, that I don't feel should warrant permission slips from the parents. I suppose it is always a possibility that the teacher acquired a general permission statement from the parents at the beginning of the year. I would certainly do so to waive the PG and PG-13 requirement. Also, in almost every other country, that movie was rated G.

This had no impact on this case either imo. I agree that there should be a blanket kind of movie rating system, but the situation does fall under the first item of "teachers not to transmit political beliefs".

Given that information on Brokeback Mountain, it probably shouldn't have been shown unless it is considered to be historically accurate and then it should be properly censored to exclude any sex scenes.

I'd be interested to hear what all you Christian haters (not sayin you are James, just a blanket question) would say if they'd shown Passion of the Christ instead of brokeback mountain. I don't agree with either movie being shown, as rated R movies which aren't related to classroom material should never be shown.