Moving at the Speed of Creativity

WARNING: MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THESE FILMS YET, YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS POST.

One of the best tests of quality for new, professionally produced movies these days, in our family, is whether or not we want to own the DVD of a movie we have seen at the theater. We don’t regularly see many movies at the theater anymore, since so many great DVDs are available via Netflix, but some films are so highly anticipated we find it difficult to wait for the DVD release! Although it is comparatively expensive for a family of five, it’s always fun to go to the actual movie theater and see a new release.

In the last couple of weeks, my wife and I have seen “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (once) and we have seen “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” twice with two of our kids. My review of these two films can be summarized with the following statement: We’ll definitely be purchasing the DVD of Prince Caspian once it is available, but we will NOT purchase the DVD of Indiana Jones Episode #4 or recommend that others see it. This movie, while it includes some potentially engaging themes and several familiar, fun characters, appears to have been created mostly to serve as content fodder for video game sales and new theme park attraction rides.

In one of his presentations during the 2007 Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference (available as a podcast from Bob Sprankle) Tim Tyson discusses “the willing suspension of disbelief” by the audience as one of the key, magical ingredients of live theater performances. Tim goes on to talk about how we, as teachers, need to invite students into a similar experience of “suspending disbelief” willingly to exceed our own expectations of our performances and engage in meaningful learning experiences together. In the context of these two recent films, I found that the writers of the Indiana Jones movie somehow crossed an invisible and somewhat nebulous (but none-the-less real) line of credibility in their script. To be as enjoyable as possible, I think motion pictures (about fictional topics, of course) need to be able to maintain the audience’s “willing suspension of disbelief.” The jungle scene where the Russians are fighting against the Americans for control of the crystal skull, and the eventually Indy Jones Junior engages in an extended sword fight with the leading evil Russian scientist, definitely stepped over that line for me. After that point, I found the film to be amusing but not entertaining and engaging in the way I want great films to be. Similar to “National Treasure #2,” the movie felt more like a theme park ride than a motion picture. I am speculating here, but the film seemed like it was designed more to provide content for video games as well theme park rides than it was created to be an outstanding motion picture. This is, perhaps, understandable from an economic standpoint (given the size of the video game industry particularly) but still disappointing from a moviegoer’s standpoint.

I did think there were some interesting possibilities with the themes of Area 51 and aliens influencing the Maya civilization, but these themes seemed to be haphazardly stitched together to provide requisite action sequences rather than to tell a compelling story. The scene in which Indiana learns about his son was entirely devoid of any emotional impact for me. This plot line was predictable, I suppose, but I still felt it lacked an emotional impact which I expected it to have. I am sure this movie will bring in millions of dollars for Lucas Film, director Stephen Spielberg, Harrison Ford, and many others involved in the production. I for one, however, was pretty disappointed in the movie, and would not recommend it to others who have better options for summer movies.

The movie Prince Caspian, in contrast, is an outstanding, epic film which again exemplifies the wonderful capacity for Walden Media to create authentic movie versions of classic books. Walden’s corporate theme is “Recapturing imagination, rekindling curiosity,” and they certainly live up to that high ideal with this movie. I did think the relationship between Peter and Caspian was not fleshed out quite as well as it could have been, but had relatively few critiques of the movie otherwise. Susan and Edmond were my two favorite characters in the movie. Edmond’s journey of learning and maturity from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was evident in multiple scenes, and I really enjoyed the courage as well as leadership shown by Susan throughout the film. Anna Popplewell does a superb job in her role, and would win my nomination for “best actor/actress” in this film. There were multiple, powerful Christian messages included in the movie’s script as well, which is both appropriate and in line with the motives of the original book author, C.S. Lewis. If you are able to see ANY summer movies this year (I’m showing my northern hemisphere perspective with this statement, I know) I highly recommend you see Prince Caspian. The scene with “death” and the other dark creature who attempts to convince Caspian to pledge himself to the forces of evil and bring back the witch Jadis is the scariest one for young viewers, but was (like most other scenes of the film) re-enacted and interpreted in a very faithful way to the original book. For more background about the movie “Prince Caspian” and Walden Media, see my notes from Randy Testa’s presentation in August 2007 at our Oklahoma Encyclomedia conference, “‘Prince Caspian’ and the Return to Narnia: Making the Journey to Literacy Through Fantasy.”

Movie sequels which disappoint and fail to live up to the higher bar of creativity, original humor and entertainment value of their predecessors are not anything new. Perhaps we should expect more films, like “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” to feel in the theater more like an amusement park ride and a video game than a motion picture. Even if this is “the trend” for new movies and particularly films which continue in a series, I think I will continue to value the most basic element of a good movie over special effects or exciting action sequences: A good story. Without a compelling story told by compelling characters, a movie quickly can devolve into a hodge-podge of special effects, fight scenes and explosions. Thankfully, as evidenced by Walden Media’s cinematic rendition of “Prince Caspian,” it’s clear not all filmmakers are willing to succumb to the economic pressures or other factors which may encourage such an outcome. Long live Prince Caspian, and long live the Kings and Queens of Narnia! I can’t wait for the DVD version of “Prince Caspian” to be released, or the movie version of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” scheduled for a May 2010 release. Long live the gallant Reepicheep!

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indianajones, princecaspian, indiana, jones, crystal, skull, lucas, lucasfilm, walden, waldenmedia, creativity, movies, filmmaking

These are my notes I took this evening watching “The Corporation Film.” For more background on the documentary, check out the English WikiPedia page for it. The article goes through the film segment by segment, in a much more thorough way than I have here with my own notes.

I added this video to our family NetFlix queue a couple of weeks ago after reading Dr. Larry Lessig’s wiki page for “Corruption RequiredViewing.” This film is a major extension, with great depth, of the ideas shared in the short film “The Story of Stuff,” which I saw this past December and shared with my family after reading Dean Shareski’s post “Give the gift of a goat” over on Eyes Right.

It’s going to take some time to process all of this. I’m sure some people might see this film and become overwhelmed by a sense of disillusionment and despair. I won’t count myself in that group. I also won’t count myself among those who are convinced that the legal idea which has relatively recently given birth to the modern corporation is clearly in need of being dismantled. I’ve been thinking a lot more lately about our “consumer society” from multiple vantage points, however, and there is no doubt that this documentary raises multiple points worth considering. As my wife continues to read “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl,” I’ve been reflecting on how AMAZING it is that we didn’t have the consumer society we have today prior to World War II, and prior to FDR’s New Deal. People may assume that our current economic climate and system is not only the “way it is,” but also “the way it should be,” but that is not a justified assumption in my own view and clearly in the view of this documentary film’s directors.

There are many historical incidents and people discussed in the film with which I had not been previously aquatinted. As a past student of Latin American politics and history, I’m amazed I’d never heard of the Cochabamba protests of 2000 in Bolivia over the privatization of water. I knew companies were now patenting genomes, but hadn’t heard of the origins of this “commercial patent race” with Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty and the case “Diamond v. Chakrabarty.” I knew about Monsanto and its development of hybrid seeds (like “Roundup Ready Cotton”) thanks to a friend back in the Lubbock area who used to work for Monsanto. I was amazed to learn that the company prohibits farmers from “catching” and keeping seed from their harvest, and actually employs people to identify and “snitch” on those who do– who are then subject to large fines. I didn’t know about Monsanto’s development of Bovine somatotropin or BST, however, and that segment alone makes me much more concerned about the milk my kids drink. Yikes.

From a media literacy standpoint, the segment about how marketing agencies overtly attempt to get kids to nag their parents to force buying decisions was very eye opening. I know this takes place, however, but I’d never seen a documentary situating the marketing proponents themselves against those questioning the ethics of this behavior.

I’ll stop with my post-video observations now and just share my notes. This is a very thought provoking film, and well worth watching, whether you consider yourself to a a political conservative or liberal. We all should be concerned about these issues as human beings, irrespective of our current political affiliations or alignments.

I’m interested to know if anyone has posted a wiki project highlighting any mistakes or inaccuracies brought up in this film. The directors, writers, and participants certainly make a lot claims that I’m sure others would and do dispute, so it would be interesting to see what those points are and the counter-claims.

Studying controversial topics. This is one of the best ways to authentically develop media literacy and critical thinking skills. This documentary got me thinking, and if you watch it I’m sure it will get you thinking too. The question is, will our THINKING lead to ACTION?

— my notes follow, my own comments are in all CAPS —

“The corporation is today’s dominant institution.”

So begins the documentary…

the corporation began with the dawn of the industrial age

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen: steam driven pump to pump water out of a coal mine
- all about productivity
- more coal per man-hour

The Civil War and the industrial revolution caused an explosion of growth
- corporate lawyers realized they needed more power
- 14th amendment was passed to protect blacks and their life, liberty and property rights
- corporation lawyers came into court and declared that a corporation is a “person” in terms of the law (14th amendment)
- US Supreme Court upheld that view / position

The Center for Public Integrity

Corporations are designed by law to be only concerned about their stockholders, not their “stakeholders”
- they have no soul to save, and no body to incarcerate

key for every corporation: making as much money as possible every quarter

for a corporation, there is no such thing as “enough” money or profits

corporations are bound, legally, to put their own interests above ALL others

externalities: the effect of a transaction of two individuals on a third party who has not played a role in the carrying out of that transaction

a corporation is an externalizing machine in the the same way a shark is a killing machine
- isn’t a question of will or malevolence, characteristics are inherent which

Discussion of sweatshops worldwide by Charles Kernaghan, Director of the National Labor Committee
- example of a Liz Claybourne jacket made in El Salvador: Retail cost $178 each, workers were paid 74 cents for each jacket they made

“this is the reality, it is the science of exploitation” (referring to Nike documents on microseconds to produce a garment)

Commentary by Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo”
- workers rarely make enough to pay for 3 meal per day, let alone feed their local economy

discussion of pollution and synthetic chemicals
- starting in 1940, dawn of the age of synthetic chemicals
- the petro-chemical era
- industry is largely responsible for the current epidemic of cancer that we are seeing worldwide

stories of artificial hormone problems due to injections from Monsanto
- people are ingesting anti-biotics through their foods because of this
- Agent Orange lawsuits brought by US servicemen resulted in $80 million in settlements, but the company never admitted guilt
- Vietnamese also injured by Agent Orange never were able to bring suit against Monsanto

Multinational Monitor: top corporate criminals

Whether you obey the law or not is a question of whether it is cost effective
- this comes down to business decisions

“every living system is in decline”

intergenerational tyranny: a form of taxation without representation, by us upon generations yet to be born
- it is wrong to do

Characteristics of an individual meeting the requirements of a “psychopath,” applied to the “person” of a corporation:
- callous unconcern for the feelings of others
- incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
- reckless disregard for the safety of others
- deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
- incapacity to experience guilt
- failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours

“If the dominant social institution of our time has been created in the image of a psychopath, who bears the moral responsibility for its actions?”

Milton Friedman: Can a building have social responsibility?
- so why could a corporation?
- those people involved in a corporation all have moral responsibility

all flesh and blood human beings have moral responsibilities

former CEO of Goodyear: you do not have much freedom in reality
- layoffs are never a decision that any CEO makes lightly, but those decisions are the consequence of modern capitalism

comparison of slavery and other forms of tyranny are inherently monstrous, but the individuals involved in them may be wonderful
- in the institutional role, they are monsters because the institutions are monsters

Dr. Vanda Shiva
- Physicist, ecologist, seed activist
- it is legitimate for a corporation to create terminator technologies
- a war against evolution: seeds with self-destruction genes

“it’s about competition, market share, being aggressive, shareholder value - what is your stock at today?”
- people want money, that is the bottom line

excerpt from the movie “The Big One”

a CEO from “Interface” corporation who didn’t have an environmental vision
- read Paul Hawken’s book “The Ecology of Commerce”
- EO Wilson: “the death of birth”
- you can’t make all products sustainably (land mines - some products shouldn’t be made at all)
- if we can’t make carpets sustainably, then we shouldn’t make them
- I realized I had been running my corporation in the way of the plunderer
- there must come a day when running a business like this is illegal

9-11 was a blessing in disguise from a financial standpoint for clients that were invested in gold, because they doubled their money

Price of oil went from $13 to $42 a barrel when the US started bombing Iraq in 1991
- every broker was excited about Saddam doing more terrible things that would drive the price of oil even higher
- in devastation there is opportunity

There was a collective responsibility in the medieval world
- people farmed the land in a collective way because it didn’t belong to them
- beginning with Tudor England, we started to see the enclosures of the commons, focusing on private property, even in the ocean

GATT
WTO
IMF

More enclosures and private takings of the commons, Harvard Trade Union Program
- how is wealth created?
- isn’t clean air wealth?
- why does wealth have to be associated with private property

Mark Kingwell, Philosopher
- firefighters started as private companies
- you had to have the medallion of that firefighter company on your house for them to put out a fire at your location
- we moved beyond that to a public trust

Noam Chomsky: privatization does not mean you take a public institution and give it to a nice person
- it means you give it to an unaccountable tyranny
- public institutions have many side benefits
- may intentionally run at a loss

Maude Barlow, Chairperson, Council of Canadians
- there are some people who aspire that someday, everything will be owned by someone or something
- we are talking about essential services for life too: education, housing, etc
- the survival of the planet: water, air, we believe these things should be held in common

Michael Walker, Exec Director, Fraser Institute
- we should find ways to attach prices to polluting
- the interests involved in that stream should be OWNED by those who have an interest
- this is the solution to a lot of these problems
[THAT IS A CONTRARY VIEW TO THE FOCUS OF THIS

A Time Warner subsidiary holds the rights to the song "Happy Birthday"
- it has charged up to 10K to allow the singing of the song in a film

comparing marketing of the 1950s to the marketing of today is like comparing a BB gun to a smart bomb
- today it is much more sophisticated and pervasive
- products are not bad or good: it is the notion of manipulating children into buying products
- Initiative Media "The Nag Factor" - Initiative Media North America
- study to show how kids nag
- Parents, nagging kids and purchase decisions
- study in 1998: Western International Media and others conducted this study

study was not to help parents cope with nagging, it was to help corporations encourage kids to nag more effectively for their products
- a quarter of all visits to theme parks would not have occurred without kids nagging them
- if the kid nags enough, you are going to go

[MY GOODNESS THIS IS HORRIBLE]

marketers are playing to developmental vulnerabilities of children
- the more insights you have about the consumer, the more creative businesses will be/are

let’s distinguish between psychologists helping to create toys appropriate for children, and those focused on helping corporations market to children to manipulate them

1 family cannot combat an industry that spends $12 billion per year

corporate goal: build a relationship when they are young, they will stay with your company

any institution which has power over individuals confers social roles
- institutions that are vibrant will specify those roles as virtues: the church, the school, corporations, etc.
- corporations provide these as “the ideal consumer”

Chompsky: corporations have to create wants
- encourage people to focus on inconsequential wants (things that don’t matter)
[I THINK THE HOOPLA OVER COACH PURSES IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE]
- the ideal is to have individuals whose conception of themselves, their sense of value, is how many created wants can I satisfy
- public relations and marketing industries are designed to try and mold people into this desired pattern

story of ChrisandLuke.com
- corporate sponsor story
- “I have lots of faith in the corporate world, because it is always going to be there.”

corporations are manufacturing consent?

corporations don’t advertise products
- they advertise a story
- decades of propaganda teaching us to think in a certain way
- now propaganda perpetuating that the corporation is responsible for prosperity and “the good life”

perception management is a methodology helping corporations working with clients, going thru a thoughtful process to identify resources, barriers, and how they can accomplish their objectives
- clients: Philip Morris, combatting environmental campaigns in Canada
- creating an image for themselves

example of Pfizer-subsidized housing development

branding is not advertising, it is production
- corporations of the future produce BRANDING
- the dissemination of the idea of themselves is their product
- example with Disney is “Celebration, Florida” - making a physical representation of themselves
- creating a physical representation of ‘the all American town’

brand driver for Disney is “family magic”
- a branded environment like Disneyworld or Disneyland is a logical extension of that

Disney brands adult films “Touchstone”

imperialist aspirations of “branding”

what happens if we wake up one day and find out that virtually all our relationships that are mediated with other human beings are controlled by commercially arbitrated relationship

undercover marketing

by the time you go to bed, you have probably received at least 8 or 9 product placements (not just in films)

Chakrabarty case
- GE and Prof Chakrabarty, microbe modified in lab to clean up oil spills
- appealed US Patent Office decision that patents don’t cover living things
- US Customs Court of Appeals, by 3-2 decision, overruled Patent Office and ruled that this looked like a detergent
- Patent Office appeal was very clear that you can’t patent life
- this means that without any public discussion or decisions, corporations will own the building blocks of life
- years later the US Patent Office issued a decision that companies or individuals could patent anything they want, except a fully alive human being

[THE FIRST TIME I HEARD ABOUT COMPANIES PATENTING GENES I IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT THIS WAS RIDICULOUS. IT IS AMAZING THIS IS REALITY TODAY.]

there is now a great race by companies to find the great “treasures” in the human genome
- companies are claiming these genes as intellectual property
- within less than 10 years, a handful of companies will own the actual genomes that make up human beings as well as animals

dichotomy of the future: those who believe life has intrinsic value, and those who believe everything is and should be commercialized

Story of Monsanto legal threats to Fox News over investigative report about growth hormone
- Rupert Murdoch owned 22 TV stations at that time

The reporters were told “just write it the way the lawyers say to write it”
- then they were told: “we just paid $3 billion for these television stations. We’ll tell you what the news is. The news is what we say it is.”

[GOOD GRIEF. IF THIS ISN'T A MEDIA NIGHTMARE I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS. NEIL POSTMAN VALIDATED AGAIN.]

the reporters were offered a money bribe to NEVER speak of this report again, EVER
- eventually led to a re-write of the news story with corporate lawyers, all references that would be critical of Monsanto were removed
- was rewritten 83 times

the Fox News corporate lawyer put in writing that they were being fired because they stood up against them (Fox News)
- this made it retaliation, and invoked whistleblower status
- found falsifying the news isn’t actually against the law

RBGH remains hidden in much of the milk supply in the US

rainwater has been privatized in Bolivia
- the World Bank required privatization
- law prohibited people from collecting rainwater
- led to protests in the street, proclaiming that “water is life” and making the point that water should not be privatized
- World Bank loans were paid for in Bolivia by the privatization of state oil industry, airline, railroad, electric, and phone companies
- Bolivians failed to convince the people that water is a commodity able to be commercialized

[THIS IS A CHAPTER OF HISTORY I'VE NEVER READ OR HEARD ABOUT BEFORE]

The Bolivian government was firm in their belief that they should be able to charge a family making just $2 per day, a quarter of their daily income just for water
- standoff become very violent

Connections between the rise of facism in Europe and corporations
- Howard Zinn
- fascism arose in Europe with the help of huge corporations

Coca-Cola invited Fanta Orange to keep their profits going in Germany during WWII
- when you drink Fanta Orange, that was the Nazi drink that was created to keep Coke making millions of dollars while the Jews were exterminated

IBM systems were required in every railroad station and every concentration camp in Nazi Germany

IBM VP: discussing that computers can be used in all kinds of ways, “you always hope they are going to be used in positive ways”

[REMINDS ME OF EARLIER DISCUSSIONS ABOUT DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP TODAY]

Peter Drucker discussion IBM CEO Watson’s knowledge of IBM computer’s usage by Hitler

US Marine Corps General Smedly Darlington Butler admitted he helped pacify Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and China for US commercial interests

In 1934 large parts of US corporate America were against FDR’s new deal, and attempted to pull off a treasonous plan
- Butler was tired of being “a gangster for capitalism”
- includes video testimony of Butler, discussing the attempt to setup a fascist dictatorship in the United States, in a plot to overthrow FDR
- included JP Morgan, Dupont, and Goodyear Tire

Now, for corporations to dominate governments, coups are no longer necessary

capitalism has displaced politicians as the reigning powers
- “CEOs are the new high priests”

The Critical Thinking Consortium

Sign at a protest march: “Bow your heads, the corporations will now lead us in prayer”

“Everything in the store is for sale”

“I am a trade barrier”

“What corporation are you from?”

juxtaposition of images of governmental and corporate leaders meeting over champagne and wine, while protesters are violently put down outside

CEO arguing “accountability is in the marketplace, in front of their shareholders”

Ira Jackson, author of “Profits with Principles”

discussion of corporations subscribing to principles of “Corporate Responsibility”
- a voluntary tactic, a reaction, to a certain market
- corporation doesn’t have expertise in determining what “social responsibility” is

injustice, when a bluff is called, the tables turn
- ultimately wherever capital puts its foot down, it can be held accountable

Kathie Lee Gifford handbag WalMart incident

“Several years after the Walmart controversy, Kathy Lee handbags were still being made in China by workers paid three cents per hour.”

We need to look at the very roots of the legal system that created this “beast” (corporations)
- many states have laws which requires that corporations be dismantled

Fight to dissolve Union Oil Company in California (Unocal)

Michael Moore discussing the impact of his documentaries
- ultimately as individuals we have to accept responsibility for our larger, collective actions and the impact those have

corporations are not accountable to the democratic process

Reference to Ghandi’s simple act of rebellion against British authorities, taking sand from the beach to make salt in violation of the law
- India has held historically that any law which prohibits the keeping of seeds is a law not worth following
- saving seed is a duty to the earth and future generations
- it is more than symbolic, it is becoming a survival option
- farmers in India not using hybrid seeds from Monsanto have incomes three times as large as those farmers now locked in to using Monsanto’s seed hybrids

“there are many tools for bringing back community”
- what is REALLY important is VISION

captain of industry or plunderer of the earth
- we must move on to another industrial revolution and get it better
- group of people committed to the goal of doing no harm

our plan: “Climbing Mount Sustainability”
- zero footprint

Richard Grossman, co-founder, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy

one should never underestimate the power of the people

Cochabamba, Boliva - resistance to water privatization

corporations still put Michael Moore videos “out there” because they don’t believe in anything
- corporations are convinced people won’t leave their couch and DO SOMETHING…..

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I saw the remarkable film “Amazing Grace” when it was released in US theaters this past April, but for some reason I did not blog about it or the issues it raises before. That is an oversight I am pleased to remedy this evening.

I adore NetFlix. Our use of NetFlix waxes and wanes, but before the holidays we updated our movie queue to include the 1997 movie Amistad, the 2006 movie Amazing Grace, and a 1998 documentary “The Voyage of La Amistad: A Quest for Freedom.” As I recall we took our then nine year old son to see “Amazing Grace” at the theater, but had never shown him the movie “Amistad” previously. My wife and I saw “Amistad” at the theater shortly after he was born in 1997, and I remember she was so upset by the scenes of the mother and child on the middle passage that she had to leave the theater for awhile. Shelly read Zach Hunter’s book “Be The Change” about working to end contemporary slavery sometime last spring, and has encouraged me to read it. (I haven’t yet.) To date, I think my only blog reference to Zach and that book was my August 2nd post, “Maintaining perspective and changing the world.” The full title to his book is “Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World.”

This evening, we watched the movie “Amazing Grace” again along with some of the special features on the DVD from Netflix. If you have not seen this movie, you need to. I’d definitely put it on a “must see” list for anyone, whether or not you are a teacher. This goes on a “human beings must watch” movie list. I had known that England outlawed the slave trade before the United States prior to watching this movie for the first time, but I had never heard of William Wilberforce or heard the story of his campaign to end the global slave trade. When I heard Randy Testa, Vice President of Education for Walden Media, speak at our state library conference in Oklahoma at the end of August (an outstanding presentation he unfortunately would not let me record and share) I was interested to learn some U.S. state legislators have responded so strongly to this movie they have suggested it become required viewing for all high school students. I share strong enthusiasm for this film as well as the issues it raises, but am NOT an advocate for increasing the number of curricular mandates in ANY state of our nation. Despite my opposition to that specific proposal, I think the fact some have proposed making this film mandatory for high school graduation says a great deal about how important these issues are, and what an excellent job this film does in presenting them.

Few things are more abhorrent than human slavery. It is extremely important that as learners of the present and students of the past, we acknowledge and understand that in the course of human history, slavery was legal “only yesterday” and remains a reality for millions of people even today.

As we anticipate the start of a new year in 2008, it is worthwhile to consider what issues and causes are worth sharing with our students and encouraging them to take an active role in. The abolition of slavery should figure high on all our lists. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Ohio is one resource among MANY referenced in the special features of the “Amazing Grace” DVD. The campaign “The Amazing Change” focuses on the realities of modern-day slavery, and tangible steps which people of any age can take to stop slavery as modern day abolitionists. Do your students think abolitionists were just historical figures, like Harriet Tubman? If so, they need an update on current events. Introduce them to David Batstone’s book “Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade–and How We Can Fight It” along with Zach Hunter’s book “Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World.” Those books are for sale, but there are MANY resources you can plug into yourself and invite your students to read that are FREE.

High on this list is the WikiPedia article for William Wilberforce, along with the BBC’s history link for Wilberforce. On the BBC website, pay particular attention to the wonderful links on the right sidebar. The WikiPedia articles for Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano should also not be missed. According to the article for Olaudah:

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most prominent people of African heritage involved in the British debate for the abolition of the slave trade. He wrote an autobiography that depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Despite his enslavement as a young man, he worked as a seaman, merchant, slaver and explorer in South America, the Caribbean, the arctic, the American colonies, and the United Kingdom.

Brycchan Carey’s website of links and resources related to Olaudah Equiano is superb as well. As soon as I saw the theatrical portrayal of Olaudah signing copies of his autobiography in the movie “Amazing Grace,” this evening, I immediately thought of Project Gutenburg, which shares free, digitized copies of books which have passed into the public domain. Surely Olaudah’s autobiography, which was published in 1789, would be among those works now freely available?

How delighted I was to find his book, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa,” available as a free electronic download from Project Gutenberg! I now have zero excuses for not reading his firsthand account of the transatlantic slave trade. There is no better way to learn history than from first person accounts, and here is a first-person account of slavery from a former slave, in his own words. In past centuries, people would have had to find and purchase Olaudah’s book to read and understand his story. Now, by simply clicking a few links, his entire narrative is before my eyes and waiting to enter into my thoughts.

We live in remarkable times. Our times are remarkable in large part because of the courage, fortitude, and perseverance of visionaries and leaders like William Wilberforce. Their work, however, and ours, is far from finished. Do you aspire to make the world a better place? If you are an educator of any type, the ideals of our profession embody this goal. Do your students aspire to make the world a better place? What do they care about, what do they want to understand better, and what do they want to work to change TODAY even as they are yet in the flower of their youth?

I was extremely impressed this past summer at NECC, listening to Dr. Tim Tyson discuss the changes in student video topics at Mabry Middle School over the past seven years. Tim shared that student films changed from those which simply shared facts and ideas, to those which focused on real-world problems and encouraged members of the audience to TAKE ACTION and make a difference. That trend line should be a reality in the digital storytelling contests and film festivals hosted in every one of our school districts.

If you have aspiring digital storytellers in your classroom, let them know about “The Better Hour Contest.” The deadline for entry is March 1, 2008, so they will have to get busy once school begins again in January. The available prizes are substantial, but the overarching purpose is even more impressive and important.

What was done at your school this past year to commemorate the 1807 abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in England? Do students, teachers, and others realize slavery is still a CURRENT event, and there are things they can be doing to take action and stop it?

If not you, then who? If not now, then when? Become a modern day abolitionist, and encourage your students to join you. We aren’t practicing and sharing these digital literacy skills merely to amuse and inform ourselves. We’re sharing these skills to transform the world into a better place.

Let’s get to work.

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slavery, history, wilberforce, england, amazinggrace, changetheworld

I have only seen about 30 minutes of the latest Ken Burns documentary “The War,” but what I have seen touched my heart and moved my spirit. I am in the midst of attempting to facilitate several opportunities for Oklahoma teachers and students to utilize videoconferencing as well as online digital tools to get involved in Veteran oral history digital storytelling work, and part of this is tied to a phenomenal collaborative project titled “Oklahoma World War II Stories.” I’ll be posting more on this in the weeks to come. This is a project with which I feel philosophically, pedagogically, and professionally centered at many levels. This connects to the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project, which I’ve been helping facilitate and lead for the past year, and ties strongly to my own interests in social studies and history.

Part of the educational efforts associated with this project have led to the provision of a full copy (on DVD) of this series “The War” to every Oklahoma public school district, as well as a superb set of educational materials for teachers and students to use in conducting their own veteran oral history interviews.

Given this backdrop of involvement with this project at several levels, I was thrilled this week to hear Ken Burns himself discuss the series “The War” for about 20 minutes in the WGBH Forum Network podcast, “THE WAR: Preview Screening and Discussion with Ken Burns.” What student in the United States should NOT see this film series at some point? As Ken says in the interview, many people today think all learning should be able to come down to a sixty second video on YouTube. It can’t. Understanding an event and a context as complex and rich as the wartime experiences of both veterans and those who supported the war at home requires DEEP LISTENING. I don’t have time to write more about this tonight, but I did want to share this link and encourage anyone interested in the history of World War II, studying World War II in school, or interested in digital storytelling (and specifically documentary filmmaking) to check out this 20 minute interview with Ken Burns.

Bring Ken Burns into your classroom. You can do it via this podcast.

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kenburns, worldwarii, war, thewar, digitalstorytelling, history, oral, oralhistory, veteran

These are my notes from a session titled:

“Prince Caspian” and the Return to Narnia: Making the Journey to Literacy Through Fantasy

by Randy Testa, Vice President of Education for Walden Media, LLC. Randy shared this presentation at the 2007 EncycloMedia presentation in Oklahoma City on 8/29/2007. Because of copyrights on media materials Randy is sharing, he could NOT give me permission to share a recording of this session.

rtesta [at] waldon [dot] com

Have lots of fall interns coming from Tufts University who will help send out more materials

Has 9 excerpts from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” on the free DVD we received, and an educator’s guide that goes with the DVD
- facilitates conversations with students about what happens in the movie, what happens in the book, etc.

Educator DVD has nice menu of 9 clips
1- Lucy Discovers the Wardrobe
2- Lucy & Mr Tumnus Intro
3- The White Witch Tempts Edmond
4- Mr and Mrs Beaver Explain the Prophesy
5- Father Christmas
6- The Children Ask Aslan for Help
7- Edmond is Forgiven
8- The Four Children are Crowned
9- Creating Creatures: Mr. Tumnus

We selected clips that really get at the guts of the story, not battle scenes
- there are extraordinary turning points in this story
- the narrator, CS Lewis, interrupts the story of Edmond’s forgiveness to say “never before and never since
- ask students “What do you think Aslan said to Edmond?”

I still can’t believe I have this job, it is a lot of fun, and I also think it is pretty important

Walden Media did “Bridge to Terebithia,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Because of Winn Dixie,” our sister company also did “Amazing Grace” about abolition of the slave trade
- We also did “Lion, Witch”
- some states have talked about requiring a curriculum where people learn about Wilbur Wilberforce

power of film, telling good stories: helping make better people

I was born in Ohio, 1 of 5 sons, father was Sicilian
- we spent a lot of time at the drive in
- I was a kid who loved to read but also loved the movies

it is nonsense to say “if kids see the movie they won’t read the book”

[YES, THAT IS SO TRUE, EXAMPLE OF ALEXANDER, "ERAGON" AND HIS HOME RUN BOOK!]

Ohio had 189 drive in movie theaters at one point in history
NEA Report: Reading at Risk: A Surven of Literary Reading in America
- this is a powerful
- www.nea.gov/pub/ReadingatRisk.pdf

less than half adult American population now reads literature
- only slightly more than one thrid of adult american males now read literature
- over the past 20 years young adults (18-24) have declined from being most likely to read literature to least likely

Reading decline correlates with increased participation in electronic media
- 1999 statistics

Good news: literary reading strongly correlates to other forms of active civic participation
- literary readers more likely than non-literary readers to:
- perform volunteer and charity work
- visit art museums
- attend performing arts events
- attend sporting events
- vote

It is good for the nation for us to encourage kids and adults to read!

In Massachusetts we call NCLB “no child left:
- high cost of content literature
- social studies is being carved out for more reading

bottom line: accelerating declines in literary reading among all demographic groups of American adults indicate an imminent cultural crisis
- indeed, at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century

[MY THOUGHT: THESE ARE 1999 STATISTICS, PRE RE/WRITE WEB. THIS IS REAL FEAR-FACTOR STUFF. WHAT ABOUT FANFICTION.NET AND BLOGGING?]

The release of a “faithful film adaption”
- offers occasions in the larger culture to revisit and restate a literary work’s merit
- introduces a whole new generation of readers, studetns and adults, to these literary works
- invites exploration of a work’s signficantce in the world today, across ages and seensibilities

Effect of the movie “Capote” - “In Cold Blood” was re-released, and all the books were gone in 3 weeks
- for “Bridge to Terebithia”

I want us to to do “Mr Popper Penguins” or “21 Balloons”
- many kids love Captain Underpants because they haven’t been exposed to other, more classic literature

Good books + Faithfully adapted movies + good teaching =
- increasing interest in book: before, during, after film’s release (student’s ask librarians, “do you have any more books by …”
- Making use of the cultural moment
– before release of a film, as a way to motivate reading the book so students will be in on things when the movie opens
– after relesae of a film, as a way to compare, discuss, analyze, motivate, reward, expand

Have rich opportunities for comparative analysis between books and movies!

does there have to be an original text?
- can there be a conversation between the texts?

Next Narnia book out in May 2008, next book coming out the next year!

Even more important
- I am a 3rd grade teacher
- if you are going to
- some kids need to see it in a variety of modalities
- retention, comprehension, capacity for empathy (what Henry James called “the felt life”)
- occasion to teach about media literacy and multiple forms of literacy

A personal beef: Who, What, Where, When, and Why?
- WHO says children shouldn’t simultaneously be reading “on” “above” and “below” grade level
- WHAT makes educators sabotage the very goals they extol? (e.g. “life-long readers”)
- WHERE did the current obsession with “the grade level of this book” come from?
- Since WHEN is Charlotte’s Web “primarily for students in grades K-3″
- WHY can’t AP ‘honors English’ students read “Prince Caspian”

The “Annotated Charlotte’s Web” is a great work

Educators always ask “what grade level is this book?
- I wish had a lever
- since when is that the first question you ask about a book you don’t know??????

Reading Levels an Formulas Don’t Necessarily Create Lifelong Readers
- chlidren who become lifelong readers:
- have access to books
– make THEIR OWN CHOICES about what to read
– are actively encouraged to read ‘above’ and ‘below’ ‘grade level’ (from “Formula for Failure” by Betty Carter, Associate Professor of Library Science, School of Library and INformation STudies, Texas Women’s University, Denton, TX)

www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/connections/cnetw05/52formula.htm

when I was in the 3rd grade we could check out 10 books, of those just 3 would be books I could actually read
- remember those great books on the human body with the cellophane parts you could fold out?
- who cared if kids were reading the texts in some of those cases!

there is no where lese except in school when people read short little passages and then take out number 2

those tests do NOT test what kids actually do when they encounter a book

Problems with assigning students to reading levels….

Technology and Media Literacy: What Do TEachers Need to Know?
www.readingonline.org/editorial/april2001/index.html

Why teachers (generally) avoid using film
“pop and play” is not teaching (popping in a movie and going down the hall
- opposite of kids seeing the movie is true: they see the movie, many want to read the book!
- perceived by school heads and/or parents as “babysitting” (ie not academic)
- we can’t take the time in our school to show a movie”

teachers don’t value film, as an art form, or in their own lives
- most teachers just see 4 movies per year
- this is in STARK contrast to the movie watching habits of our youth
- we need (as teachers) to watch more movies, be more literate of film as a genre and value it more

Librarians are the people in a school who know where the action is
- AASL: we work with them a lot

Consider: Books and Films are both texts
- written text
- visual text
- same message: tell a story
- different symbol system
- we’ve now moved in to publishing with Penguin, so we can move it right into publishing

Were so many
- have a good book by Joseph Bruchac about “Jim Thorpe: Original All American” are are going to use it for the basis of a screenplay

Pictures of Native American students all in uniforms, all in a music class doing the same thing
- commentary on diversity and assimilation

little movie we made last year: “How to Eat Fried Worms”
- sales of the book spiked BIG TIME after the movie

Coming out: “The White Giraffe by Lauren St John”

big question: what do you mean by “faithful adaptation”
- in your own off-stage life, consider “what is the difference between a LITERAL adaption and a FAITHFUL adaptation”

Lois Lowry’s definition: A faithful film adaptation is one that is “true to the spirit of the book”

Picture of Clive Staples Lewis
- brings us to The Chronicles of Narnia

Opening line “because of the air raids” was something everyone knew about and understood when the book was published
- just 5 years after WWII

Were posters all of the city that said sending your kids out of the city is your patriotic duty

juxtapose image of air raid opening scene from LWW and the twin towers

example of a five year old’s story about the twin towers
- in some schools kids and teachers have been told, “we’re not going to talk about that [the twin towers attack and tragedy] because it is too scary
- what we know is that

Vivian Paley: “…the children must be able to imagine themselves swimming to safety and using their jackets as pillows…”

Another great piece of ammo: CS Lewis’ essay “On Three Ways of Writing for Children” from “On Stories and Other Essays On Literature”
- fantasy is vital because it helps children make sense of reality in a way that “school stories” do not and cannot
- more….

Making sense of reality
- twin towers
- through fantasy
- first grade art examples

When I was at Dartmouth we

in play kids explore reality, morality, fantasy…

Lewis was well aware of the arguments
- “A far more serious attack on the fairy tale as children’s…..”
- good quotations here, going to fast to copy

Opening line of Charlotte’s Web: “Where is papa going with that ax?”

Lewis’ question: are we making the destinies of children BRIGHTER or DARKER?

So here we are, in Narnia on the screen
- Lewis felt that for a fantasy to work, it had to be grounded in the realities of the present day
- at the end of the film, the phoenix’s come into the battle scene an come in in the same formation as the German bomber planes at the start of the film

From the creative brief for Disney/Walden for thinking about Prince Caspian
- a parallel universe that expands through time
- vast, multi-layered world
- …

With Narnia time, things are really messed up

Powerful theme of Caspian blowing the hornWhen you hear the call, will you be ready?

Are going to have a contest for kids and educators: Who is your Dr. Cornelius?

Aslan: “Things never happen in the same way twice”

That was then, this is now….
- more than 1300 years have passed, Miraz is in power

story of Prince Caspian: “is about reawakening lost faith in a new Narnia barely recognizable from its former self”

King Mirax is a real bad guy, a real bad villain
- all three paths collide: children, Prince Caspian, and Narnia in a new era

LA partners talk about the Narnia series as a “franchise”
- in Prince Caspian you will meet characters who you’ll see later in the series

Our new hero: Prince Caspian
- educated
- knowledge: “he learned the difference between wisdom and knowledge”
- Lewis hated what was going on in the schools at the time in England

versification

Dr Cornelius: half dwarf, half Telmarine
- what does it mean to be devoted to one’s students?
- not just efficient or concerned, but DEVOTED?

Nikabrik: a black dwarf soured by hate
Trufflehunter: Prince Caspian’s most loyal servant
Trumpkin: good hearted dwarf
Reepicheep: (my favorite)
- there are 12 of them: not 6, not 4
- when Reepicheep has has tail cut off, his brothers are all going to cut off their tales so he is not shamed
- that is my favorite scene in the book

Same four kids in the movie
- the are a year older, voices are breaking

great lion to Lucy: “You are a lioness!”

Aslan: again the voice of Liam Neesm

Library of Congress doing a massive literacy camapign
- also “Read It Before You See It” campaign from Harper Collins

lots more on narnia.com

www.walden.com
- downloadable educator guides
- PD presentations and materials, like CS Lewis and the Moral Imagination
- Online discussions for teachers and librarians only
- previews of coming attractions
- picture of me in my tuxedo on my birthday

Looking at multiple scripts for “The Giver” by Lois Lowry

Walden IS doing all 7 movies
- we are Walden.com not Walden.org
- slogan is “Recapturing imagination, rekindling curiosity”

Drawn Treader has just been green lit and filming is about to start
- Director of “Amazing Grace” is going to direct it, Andrew Adamsen couldn’t do it because of timing

Also releasing “The Water Horse” this December

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walden, narnia, caspian, cslewis, lewis, literacy, reading, books, media, medialiteracy, motivation, princecaspian

J.K. Rowling is a master-storyteller, and director David Yates has done the best job to-date bringing one of Rowling’s books to the movie screen in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” My love for the fictional works and worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis is strong. While I still enjoy the greater philosophical and theological depth of Middle Earth and Narnia compared to Hogwarts and Rowling’s English wizarding world, there can be little doubt (having read the first six HP books and now about one-third of the final book) Rowling can weave a compelling tale full of complexity, depth, surprises, and wonderful characters. Having seen the fifth Harry Potter movie twice now, I offer the following as compelling themes I see reflected in both the story and the theatrical film.

Family Ties: I love the theme of family ties in HP5, not only reflected in the Weasley family, their dinner table rituals and their care for each other, but also by the adoptive love of Sirius for Harry and the Order of the Phoenix itself. Counter to the Slytherin and Voldemort (dark wizard) crusade for maintaining a “pure blood” wizarding community (reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and Nazi eugenics) Harry is adopted by both the Weasley family and Sirius Black irrespective of their lack of genetic or blood ties. This is an exceptionally strong theme.

Need for support and connection, to avoid isolation: One of my favorite characters in the theatrical version of HP5 is Luna Lovegood, played by Evanna Lynch. Luna’s strongest lines in the film are when she and Harry find themselves together in the Forbidden Forest, admiring and feeding the thestrals. Luna observes, quite astutely, that the desire of the dark lord is to make Harry feel isolated and alone. When we perceive ourselves to be alone and without outside moral support, we are most susceptible to fall alone– to give in to temptation, to fall victim to depression, to turn our thoughts inward and further lose our human connections to others who can help lift us up. I really like the way the movie scriptwriters and Yates drew out this theme from the book into the movie.

Choices define us: The scene at the end of the movie, following Dumbledore’s face-to-face fight with Voldemort, strongly depicts the theme of our choices defining us more than our genetics, our histories, or even our past choices. Harry is on the ground, struggling to win a fight over his mind with the dark lord, when Dumbledore shares this encouragement in Harry’s ear. There are many strong themes in the HP series, but this is definitely one of my personal favorites. I believe the idea and reality of destiny is a divine mystery, but amidst our partial perceptions and understandings of pre-destination / fate our choices have prime importance. Keeping this discussion non-theological, I’ll note that each day we have multiple opportunities to choose: To choose well or choose poorly. We can choose to act ethically, or we can choose to act in ways that are contrary to our perception of a moral code. (I’m not a relativist, Kant was one philosopher who believed in an objective, discoverable moral code which exists independent of individual experiences and perceptions. Of course Jesus Christ and many other leaders also made this claim.) Harry struggles with this throughout book five and the movie, fighting to not be overcome by the contagious anger he feels through his invisible connection to Voldemort. In the final climatic scene, Voldemort’s encouragement to Harry to kill Bellatrix Lestrange (who had just killed Sirius and previously brutally murdered both of Neville’s parents) is reminiscent of Emperor Palpatine’s failed attempts to get Luke to “give in to the dark side” and kill his father at the end of “Return of the Jedi.” Like Luke, Harry withstands the temptation put before him and chooses the light instead of the darkness. I love the fact that Rowling made this theme of “our choices define us” such a strong part of the Harry Potter story series, and I’m glad it is strongly conveyed by the theatrical version of book five.

We all have good and bad within us: Contrary to the views of some romantic thinkers like Rousseau, Sirius Black (somewhere near the middle of the movie) shares some priceless wisdom with Harry that “there are no pure death eaters or good wizards, but we all have light and dark inside us.” (This is not an exact quotation, it is my best effort at a paraphrase from memory.) I agree with this on both a philosophical and theological level. As I alluded in the paragraph on “choices define us,” no one is exempt from temptation. Whether motivated by pride, a desire for power, envy, a lust for money, or other reasons, each of us face moral and ethical choices each day. This scene with Sirius and Harry in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place is a superb one, which will be ideal to use (once the movie is released in DVD form) to discuss these issues of human nature and moral choice with others.

Moral duty: The issue of moral duty is an extremely important one to discuss and a critical understanding to cultivate as a human being. Although this dynamic is not focused on as often in the movie as in the book, the relationship between Dolores Umbridge and Harry highlights this concept well. Umbridge personifies much of what can go wrong when an unloving, power-hungry and cruel person holds a position of authority in a formal educational setting. She tortures Harry by punishing him with the “writing of lines” carved into the back of his hand, literally cutting into his skin and causing his “lines” to be written in his own blood. (Harry writes, “I must not tell lies.”)

Traditional educational settings, and more generally formal organizational settings, can be highly authoritarian and coercive. Independent thinking which is contrary to “policy” is usually not welcomed in these contexts. Human beings have moral obligations to ideals higher than their “boss” or the organization which they may serve, however. As an example, members of the U.S. military take a pledge to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” This pledge is not to serve only the President, not to blindly follow orders irrespective of their validity– but to ultimately serve in a way that supports the Constitution. The instances when a person chooses NOT to follow the direct order of a superior are rare in the military as well as other organizations– Making that decision is generally a career-ender for most people. There IS a line where an order can be judged “illegal,” however– both for a military member or a person in a different organization. The case of William Calley and the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War (in 1968) is one case in point. The Nuremberg Trials following World War II are another example, as are the more recent cases of torture and prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

I share this additional background to highlight the importance and continuing relevance of discussions about moral duty in 2007. In “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Dolores Umbridge clearly oversteps the bounds of permissible school discipline in her harsh (and literally torturous) punishment of Harry for speaking up in class and insisting Cedric Diggory was killed by Lord Voldemort. Hermione and Ron were RIGHT to encourage Harry to report this abuse of power to Dumbledore, but unfortunately he was unwilling to do so. I think this episode in the movie will provide an excellent case study to use with others in discussing moral duty, the legal limits of authority, and other related issues.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely: Dolores Umbridge takes on a role at Hogwarts which includes essentially unlimited power. Only at the end of the film do the rebellious centaurs serve as the instruments of justice in checking Umbridge’s use of authority. Examples of Umbridge’s abuse of powers are numerous in the movie, and include her illegal use of Veritaserum on students during interrogations, her launch of an inquisitorial brigade composed of Hogwarts students and staff, her struggle to control almost all aspects of student behavior through an endless list of rules, etc. Umbridge reflects many of the characteristics displayed by the worst leaders, and in doing so provides multiple opportunities for object lessons on leadership.

Students in schools need to learn “real things”: The scene depicting the first day of class fifth year students had with Dolores Umbridge is classic in depicting the mistaken way some people approach education and “School” more generally. Like Umbridge, some people would prefer to have students gain a theoretical appreciation of ideas or skills, rather than practicing the skills themselves. This reminds me of Alan Kay’s comments in June 2007 at EduComm, in relation to playing “real guitar” or “air guitar.” Students in our schools need to develop and practice REAL skills, not just fake ones or “school skills” that are not relevant outside the hallowed walls of academe. Similar to the slogan for Coca-Cola, students in our schools deserve “the real thing.” In the movie, students had to take matters into their own hands to learn “defense against the dark arts,” and asked Harry to serve as their instructor and mentor. In our schools, we cannot relegate responsibility of acquiring relevant 21st century skills to the discretionary time students have before and after the hours of formal schooling.

Challenge of controlling your mind: Another theme I’ll reflect on from the movie regards “occulemency” (not sure if I’m spelling that right) and Harry’s struggle to control his mind against the invasion of Lord Voldemort. It is very difficult to control your mind in the real world– Have you sat and listened to a continuous 45 minute lecture lately, or even a 20 minute sermon, and focused on how often your mind tries to wander off into other ideas? It’s often hard to focus for an extended period of time! Yet this extremely difficult task is often what we ask students in our schools (particularly at secondary and college levels) to do regularly, day after day. Focusing on a task or set of ideas is a skill which can be practiced, but is likely never completely “mastered.” I’ve written about this previously under the blog category “digital discipline.” I think this was a strong theme in the movie as well as the book, and would provide a fruitful context for additional discussions, research, and projects which relate to these issues.

In finding links for many of the words and characters I’ve mentioned in this post, I have again been amazed by the breadth as well as currency of Wikipedia. It struck me the other day that in many cases, when teachers assign research projects, they are essentially asking students to rewrite (hopefully in their own words) an article that can now be found in WikiPedia. That sort of task seems to implicitly communicate low expectations of student performance (to put it tactfully,) and stated more bluntly, to constitute a profound waste of time for both the student and the teacher. Why should we ask students to write their own versions of encyclopedia articles? If we want them to work on a report with an encyclopedic focus, why not have students actually contribute to and author content on WikiPedia itself? If your response includes the thought, “my students don’t have enough expertise to make viable contributions to a project like Wikipedia,” consider the breadth of WikiPedia. The goal of the project is to provide universal access to the sum of human knowledge. Your students DO have expertise about many topics, and it is likely they each could contribute something, somewhere, in WikiPedia.

Rather than give students in your classroom assignments this school year which remain at the knowledge and comprehension level of Bloom’s taxonomy, my challenge to you would be inviting students to explore more complex, engaging and challenging questions which will require foundational knowledge at the lower levels of Blooms but also require deeper levels of analysis and thought.

My final reflection on this latest Harry Potter movie takes the form of a question, “Where is the Internet and ‘citizen journalism’ in the world of Hogwarts?” All the students continue to write with quills and use textbooks, no one is using a laptop. (In fact, computers do not seem to even exist in Rowling’s fictional world.) There is essentially only one source of news in the Wizarding World of Rowling, “The Daily Prophet.” With all the spells and powers available to Wizards, with all the creativity which goes into the devices they have invented, you’d think someone would have concocted at least an alternative communications modality for the Wizarding world to compete with The Daily Prophet.

Why did Rowling choose to make her Wizarding world have only one media voice? I would guess the reason was it was a simpler world to depict and therefore understand. How many people today fully appreciate and understand the implications of our 10,000+ channel universe? I certainly don’t think I do. It is much easier to contemplate a world with only three major television networks, or a Wizarding world with only one media source: A newspaper. Thinking about such a world (or writing about one) may be easier to do, and more nostalgically compelling for audiences more familiar with a world where media sources are sharply limited, but that version of reality is a TRUE FICTION today.

Here are some questions for your students to tackle relating to the Harry Potter world: Why do television and the Internet not exist in the Wizarding world of Rowling? How would the dynamics within the Wizarding World have been different if everyone had been empowered to be a citizen journalist, outside the control and authority of the “Ministry of Magic?” Those questions certainly doesn’t have clear-cut answers, but I’m sure your students could come up with a lot of good possibilities and ideas!

Many, many thanks to Rowling and everyone involved in the latest “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” movie! The film was a great ride, and certainly provides a wealth of food for thought as well as subsequent conversations!

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rowling, harrypotter, phoenix, harry, potter, orderofthephoenix, movie

This podcast features a literature circle discussion between Alexander Fryer, Shelly Fryer, and Wesley Fryer about J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.” Reasons for loving the book and movie series are explored, noteable characteristics and lessons learned from major characters are discussed, and favorite scenes from the movies and the books are shared. This podcast concludes with a remix of various movie lines, including a memorable monolog by Gandalf the Grey in the mines of Moria, as he speaks to Frodo about the history of the ring and his destiny as the ringbearer.

Click here to listen to this podcast in your web browser!

SHOWNOTES:

1. “J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings)” (J.R.R. Tolkien)
2. Praetorian Guard (WikiPedia entry)
3. taking the hobbits to isengard (YouTube video)
4. “VeggieTales - Lord of the Beans”

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Technorati Tags: tolkien, lordoftherings, gandalf, frodo

 

 Podcast157: Lord of the Rings Literature Circle [42:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (624)

I watched the 2005 documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” last night, and want to share some reflections on the movie from the perspectives of a digital storyteller, concerned citizen/consumer, and educator. The video highlights multiple problems/challenges which are not unique to WalMart but are perhaps amplified because of the corporation’s size and clout. There ARE troubling problems with the company itself, however, which beg the question of whether individual consumers should (at a minimum) stop patronizing local WalMart stores in response.

First, a few personal connections.

Watching the initial scenes about the closing of a local hardware store, in response to the impact of a new WalMart store in the town, reminded me of summers I spent in Itasca, Texas, with our good family friends Fred and Alice McPherson. Fred and Alice owned the True Value hardware store in Itasca, and I can relate to the relatives of the owners who shared a deep connection with the store and what it meant to them and their relationships. I also thought of my aunt and uncle in Cody, Wyoming, Marge and Dick Wilder, who have struggled with others to keep WalMart (eventually unsuccessfully) out of their town. The negative impact of WalMart upon small business owners is real, tangible, and not just an academic concept for me. I relate to this personally.

Second, I want to share some ideas from the perspective of a digital storyteller about this film.

The writers and producers did a great job juxtaposing scenes of the WalMart CEO (Lee Scott) making positive statements to shareholders and the press about his company, and then subsequent scenes interviewing former WalMart employees and others which directly contradicted Scott’s statements and made him sound like a liar. The juxtaposition of images and statements in this style naturally leads to cognitive dissonance on the part of the viewer, because the two messages are in direct opposition to each other. The film does not use any type of textual chapter titles to divide it into sections, but rather introduces a new theme with actual video footage of the CEO or actual company videos, which are then followed by scenes showing opposing/alternate views.

The spin and propaganda purpose of these WalMart videos is strikingly apparent, particularly because of the way the film’s authors sandwich them between interviews with former employees who share contradictory perspectives. It is extremely important that we continue to help students develop independent capacities of media literacy, which include the ability to identify bias in presented information. This video as a whole, as well as individual clips from it, would be excellent to use for class projects and class discussions about media advertisement spin and the need for critical consumption of videos produced for the mass market.

Third, I want to reflect on some of the societal issues which this film (and WalMart’s role in our local and global economy) brings to the forefront.

As a citizen of the United States, I do believe that our market-oriented economy along with our relatively open political system provides a wealth of economic as well as social change opportunities for a wide range of constituents. While I wish we had the Prime Minister on the metaphorical “grill” of critique style of regular accountability which is present in the government of Great Britain for our own chief executive, I do think we have a fantastic country and a great economic system. I agree with the idea that democracy is messy but it is better than the alternatives.

That being said, I think we have a lot of room for improvement in many areas. Many of these are sharply highlighted by this film. I’ll list these issues, and then reflect on them a bit separately. These include issues of urbanization/small town America in crisis, health care costs, the challenges associated with living on a “minimum wage” in the USA, lack of honesty/integrity in business and personal relations, sexism, racism, and opposition to union activity / labor organizing. In addition, the relentless corporate pressure to cut costs and maximize profits can and does lead to problems when people value the bottom line over other human beings.

First, issues of urbanization. Our nation, along with many developed and developing areas of the world, continues to experience population flows from rural to urban settings. This is part of what Alvin Toffler called “the second wave” of changing demographics from a predominantly agricultural model to an industrial one, as well as the ongoing “third wave” of information age demographic changes. Small town America is generally in decline, with aging and declining populations in most areas. School populations continue to shrink in most small, rural towns (certainly here in the midwest where I live) and school district leaders often find it difficult to pass bond initiatives for increased funding for schools amidst an aging population of older citizens. Floydada, Texas, is an example. The first year of their TxTIP project at the middle school, a new educational bond package that would have funded construction of a new school failed by a very narrow margin: I think less than 100 votes. Many taxpayers in Floydada are older and don’t have school-age children, and they live on fixed incomes. Supporting schools that had (at least to that point) been shrinking on a yearly basis sadly wasn’t a priority for many of them.

I wrestle with this issue from time to time, and wonder if and when technology of the “flat world” will provide an answer to reverse rural to urban demographic trends in the United States. It was interesting to watch this movie after having consumed (via audio book) Tom Friedman’s book “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century” a year or so ago. Friedman objectively reports on the economic models of WalMart, particularly WalMart’s efficient use of supply chains, as one of the main “flatteners” of our world. Rather than critique WalMart and its business economics as this film certainly does, Friedman seems to extoll it and encourage listeners to find ways to replicate and leverage these economic potentials to their own individual, business and national advantage.

I don’t think the economics of WalMart style supply chains are inherently evil. I think what we continue to see with supply chains and the growth of WalMart is a continuing evolution of Adam Smith’s free market economic model, which emphasizes the inexpensive delivery of products to consumers at ever rising scales of production. I frequently joke with participants at my educational workshops that “rural” today is defined by one’s distance from a WalMart store. After watching this movie, I’m thinking that joke may still be accurate but is perhaps more sad than funny. I don’t know what a “solution” to rural/small town decline in the United States is, but I don’t think a complete answer can be found in just opposing the construction of new WalMart facilities in or close to a community. I understand the reasons people oppose new WalMart construction projects in many cases, but I think “victory” in this context (from a big-picture standpoint) must be found in CONSTRUCTIVE solutions which are achieved cooperatively, not merely DESTRUCTIVE campaigns like opposing a new proposed WalMart building project.

Health care costs and the ridiculously complicated as well as costly situation we find ourselves in throughout the United States in 2007 is the second major issue raised by this film. It highlights how WalMart, by paying its “associates” so little and in many cases allowing them to work fewer hours to maintain part-time status, actually costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year because those employees rely on public medical assistance to meet their basic health needs. The “solution” to this which the filmakers would propose is not entirely clear, but it seems evident they support the idea of WalMart paying workers higher wages and providing for their health care needs.

That sounds good, but I think this problem (along with many others highlighted by the film) is not isolated to WalMart. I know many US military families at the bottom of the enlisted pay scale still qualify for food stamps and other forms of federal worker and health assistance. Even more generally, I think anyone trying to support a family on a minimum wage job (or even two minimum wage jobs) in the United States today faces a depressingly difficult struggle. This is why we hear (and some of you may know from direct experience as well as others you know personally) about people working two and three jobs to try and make ends meet. Sadly, that sort of work environment is not rare in the United States today.

Our health care system is ridiculously complicated. My wife and I faced this head on this past summer and fall, as we were presented with health care options from her new employer as well as mine. It was virtually impossible for us (and we are both educated, fairly smart people) to figure out which plan would be better in the long run for our family. Co-pay requirements were different, individual and family annual pay caps were different, medicine benefits were different: And the monthly costs of each plan were different. How could we compare “apples to apples” and make the right decision? We never figured that out, and so we just guessed and went with one plan. The complexity and HIGH cost of our medical situation is ridiculous. I am thankful we have high levels of medical care quality in the United States, don’t get me wrong. I have lived and traveled in other countries in the world, and in some cases the access we have to medicines (including basic antibiotics) as well as hospital care is tremendously better. That said, however, I do not think our health care system should be as expensive or as costly as it is today. I do not think the financial condition of our U.S. medical care system today benefits either patients or the doctors themselves as well as it should. Most times I have gone to the doctor lately for a personal illness, I’ve felt like I was strictly trading money for licit drugs as quickly as possible, and at a cost which was both high and complicated to understand. I don’t think I’m alone with these sentiments. Health care challenges are real, but they are not just limited to WalMart employees.

A third problem in our society generally highlighted by this film is a frequent lack of honesty and integrity on the part of individuals. The story of the WalMart executive who was fired for being a whistleblower about worker standard violations in Latin America was a sad and disturbing tale. Tomorrow I plan to show my wife and two oldest children the section of the film that deals with workers in China and Central America. The working conditions they face, the working schedules, and the ludicrously low pay scales they are compensated under for their labors are abhorrent. I discussed this issue of “unbridled free market capitalism” with one of our workshop participants in Enid this past week, before I saw this movie, and this is something I think a great deal about from time to time. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the broad-based failure of communism as an economic and political model seemed to leave free-market capitalism and democracy as the only viable alternatives on the world stage. Francis Fukuyama espoused that view in 1989 with his article “The End of History” in National Interest magazine and his subsequent book by the same title, which I read with great interest in an earlier season of my life when I was focused more on political issues than educational ones and was researching security issues in Latin America. While centrally planned, totalitarian economies and governments are certainly NOT preferable to alternatives embracing market economics and democracy / political freedom, there are still BIG problems with market economics which must be addressed through some forms of regulation and worker / consumer protection.

Communism may have been debunked as a viable economic and political system on the world stage, but the economic rich/poor gap in many parts of the world has not been significantly changed by that event. The land distribution issues and realities of poverty which led to war in El Salvador in the 1980s have not been solved. The rich/poor gap problems which paved the way for the Sandinistas to gain power in Nicaragua in 1979 have not been resolved. (BTW, I listened to a great NPR episode back in November that was eye opening about what Daniel Ortega is up to these days.) My own experiences before, during and after my year living and studying in Mexico in 1992-1993 were informative in this respect. When I went to Mexico in 1992, Carlos Salinas de Gortari (the Mexican President at the time) was a hero in the United States for leading his nation in economic reforms which produced single digit inflation, and the promises of NAFTA were all the buzz in social as well as political conversations. After I left (and these events were not directly related to me, of course!) Salinas ended up fleeing the country as a criminal, Mexico faced a violent, insurgent uprising in Oaxaca, and many on both sides of the Rio Grande openly questioned the value of free trade agreements in general and specifically NAFTA. Just as there are no panaceas or silver bullets in education, neither are their panaceas to be found in economics or politics. The complex dynamics in each context combine to prevent any single policy from offering a complete “solution” to the array of challenges which are present.

That said, I think we can generalize to say unfettered free market economic policies always tend to lead to worker abuse and poor treatment if they are not tempered and bounded by some regulation. Consider the case of factory mills in England in the early industrial period. Mistreatment of workers by factory owners led to the labour movement and multiple protections for workers, including child-labor provisions, limits on the length of the work day, etc. I think we clearly see the need for strong labor movements in India, China, parts of Latin America, and elsewhere when people are being financially coerced into working slave-like schedules for paltry wages. Again, the story of the WalMart executive inspector who was a whistleblower for inhumane treatment of WalMart employees in Latin America was a strong segment in this movie. After inspecting his first factory and seeing the conditions and circumstances in which the people worked, as well as the wages they were paid, this man openly wept. Are consumers in the United States and elsewhere cognitively as well as emotionally understanding this situation of modern-day economic labor mistreatment? I will not use the word “slavery” because what is happening now in the cases of factories like those depicted in this film is NOT precisely “slavery,” but it is inhumane and wrong. “Wage slavery” is a term used by some to refer to what I’m discussing here. (Slavery is still practiced in the international sex trade and elsewhere, however, and these abhorrent practices should also be actively opposed by people everywhere.) The institutionalized practices of WalMart executives to block and disrupt any form of WalMart associate labor organization WAS a big surprise to me, and I find that also abhorrent. Unions can, in some cases, block desirable goals for needed reforms, but in other contexts they play vital roles to protect worker rights and limit/check the power of employers to abuse workers.

In addition to these issues of market economics, this film also highlights BIG problems we continue to have in the United States with sexism, racism, and overall equal treatment of people. Good leadership matters, and there are certainly many examples in this film of people who unfortunately had to work for people who acted VERY POORLY in their managerial and supervisory roles. I would like to see our schools focus as intensely on helping students forge meaningful relationships with others from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, to break down stereotypes which often perpetuate sexist, racist, and other discriminatory treatment of others as much as many schools now focus on drill and practice in preparation for annual statewide tests.

This film seems to beg a basic question about our current economic system overall: What are the present and future prospects for entrepreneurism in the United States and elsewhere in the world? Although it is not suggested in this film, I think the prosp