Nancy Flanagan
Nancy Flanagan is an education writer and consultant focusing on teacher leadership. She spent 30 years in a K-12 music classroom in Hartland, Mich, and was named Michigan Teacher of the Year in 1993. She is National Board-certified, and a member of the Teacher Leaders Network. She welcomes feedback on her sharp-eyed perspectives on the inconsistencies and inspirations, the incomprehensible, immoral and imaginative, in American education. She is a digital organizer for IDEA(Institute for Democratic Education in America).
To See or Not to See: Kids, Movies, and Reality
I have a long history as guardian of my students' moral values, when it comes to popular media. For about 15 years, I took my 8th graders (usually numbering more than 100, plus a couple dozen parents) on an out-of-state, multiple-day travel experience. These trips involved visits to iconic landmarks (the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,Gateway Arch, a blues club in Chicago, the Washington D.C. mall) as well as musical theatre performances and symphony concerts. My students also performed themselves, in public venues, clinics or as community service, in veterans' facilities or schools--a big part of the educational value of these excursions.
We also spent hours on motor coaches. Hours and hours and hours, in fact, of students and parent chaperones watching videos together. Laying down clear rules for what is and is not OK entertainment for four buses full of young teenagers is an exercise in judgment, discretion and just plain not giving in.
It doesn't help that what's a fun flick for one family is the manifest work of the devil for another. Ratings are only somewhat helpful. There are any number of PG-13 films that I'd happily encourage my own 8th grader to see, but I never felt I could pass that verdict on behalf of all the parents whose kids were traveling with me. Besides, PG-13 is a pretty ambiguous caption, encompassing some sleazy-value movies designed to slide under the ratings
We also spent hours on motor coaches. Hours and hours and hours, in fact, of students and parent chaperones watching videos together. Laying down clear rules for what is and is not OK entertainment for four buses full of young teenagers is an exercise in judgment, discretion and just plain not giving in.
It doesn't help that what's a fun flick for one family is the manifest work of the devil for another. Ratings are only somewhat helpful. There are any number of PG-13 films that I'd happily encourage my own 8th grader to see, but I never felt I could pass that verdict on behalf of all the parents whose kids were traveling with me. Besides, PG-13 is a pretty ambiguous caption, encompassing some sleazy-value movies designed to slide under the ratings