12 Years a Slave to be part of US national curriculum

originally posted by: thesaneone
It's a movie not a documentary.

Movies are loaded with inaccuracies and should not be used in schools.

Some times movies help draw attention to certain events in history and draw interest.

For children it can have uses than just sitting and looking at text books all day which can put kids off of history.

The key is not relying on movies and using them in small amounts and teachers to point out any inconstancy and fill in gaps.

No it shouldn't be used to teach on its own. But can be a good support tool. In fact the any inconsistency can be good at bringing in debates.


But I know you will disagree 100%. In fact even if I said water was wet you would disagree with me.

originally posted by: crazyewok

originally posted by: thesaneone
It's a movie not a documentary.

Movies are loaded with inaccuracies and should not be used in schools.

Some times movies help draw attention to certain events in history and draw interest.

For children it can have uses than just sitting and looking at text books all day which can put kids off of history.

The key is not relying on movies and using them in small amounts and teachers to point out any inconstancy and fill in gaps.

No it shouldn't be used to teach on its own. But can be a good support tool. In fact the any inconsistency can be good at bringing in debates.


But I know you will disagree 100%. In fact even if I said water was wet you would disagree with me.

Why would I disagree with your opinion?

My opinion is by reading books kids can learn more then they can from a movie.

First thing I thought of when I seen one of my favorite actors (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is I want to watch serenity or children of men, kids don't care about any message they can get from a movie they only like the violence and nudity in movies.



I agree with you 100% water is wet.

a reply to: thesaneone

Sorry maybe I was too harsh on you.

I see your point.

Personaly I would go for a mixed approach with Historys

50% traditional book work and essays

40% Field trips

10% Fun activity like movies.

My teachers used to do it that way. I found the Fun activity s like movies and the field trips made me want to read the history books. It paid off as in the final national exams I scored some of the highest marks in the UK. one Exam 1 mark under 100% (lost it for spelling haha).

Even today I read lots of Non fiction to get back ground on the fiction I do read.

It's a very good film, and students maybe should be watching it, writing reports about slavery and the effect in has on both slave and "owners" , then and now, and discussing it in classes. A good jumping off point for the topic.

originally posted by: Aleister
It's a very good film, and students maybe should be watching it, writing reports about slavery and the effect in has on both slave and "owners" , then and now, and discussing it in classes. A good jumping off point for the topic.

Thats the key to use of movies like that, jumping off points.

Thats how my old teacher use to use them. Not to teach us facts, but to draw us in and use it to trigger debates and deeper research.

a reply to: crazyewok

Exactly. Just imagine if someone was using "Argo" to teach about the Americans in the Canadian embassy during the Iran/American embassy situation. A movie is a movie, and I'm actually going to watch one now. Maybe I'll learn something. Likely not too much though.

a reply to: dfens

Of course it is relevant. I would much prefer the kids know what the heck this country did to people in our founding and NUMEROUS years. We have a crap history of mistreatment of people like it or not and when kids get old enough to digest information of that magnitude, it should be viewed just as other positive things in this country should be viewed. Yeah some people push agenda but let's not pretend that after slavery ended that everything was just sort of ok

I mean if reading a book is preferable to you, great...but that brings out another problem

People say these movies are biased but isn't all media biased? Books can be biased as well

so what do we trust?

Either way, yes a movie about our crappy past should be part of history

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: thesaneone

Sorry maybe I was too harsh on you.

I see your point.

Personaly I would go for a mixed approach with Historys

50% traditional book work and essays

40% Field trips

10% Fun activity like movies.

My teachers used to do it that way. I found the Fun activity s like movies and the field trips made me want to read the history books. It paid off as in the final national exams I scored some of the highest marks in the UK. one Exam 1 mark under 100% (lost it for spelling haha).

Even today I read lots of Non fiction to get back ground on the fiction I do read.

Dunno how old you are...but if you were in the 80's and 90's...remember when you'd walk into class and see the magical TV on the stand with the VCR?

can't tell me that wasn't the best period of the day...you saw that TV and you got excited!

But then to stay on topic, as I said, books can be biased and incorrect as well