Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, January 10, 2013

TEACHED: Provocation and Distortion « InterACT

TEACHED: Provocation and Distortion « InterACT:


TEACHED: Provocation and Distortion

A few months ago I wrote about a trio of short films I’d seen, directed by Kelly Amis as part of a project calledTEACHED; two of those films in particular led me to include the description “glossy propaganda” in my blog post title.  To her credit, Amis responded to my critique (and linked to it) in her own blog post, with the clever titleThanks for calling me glossy.   However, she isn’t pleased with the “animosity” in my post – and I’ll admit that my tone conveyed animosity, though aimed at the product rather than the producer.  Given that filmmaking (and writing) are such personal endeavors, I suppose it’s hard to avoid criticizing someone’s work without it having a personal sting, but I hope that my prior post, and this one, are focused on content and issues and not interpreted as personal attacks.  Ms. Amis seems like a nice enough person, with a sense of humor that I appreciate.
For those who don’t want or need all the details, the basic thrust of my problem with the films, and with Amis’s follow-up post, is that the challenges we face in public education are being oversimplified, and seemingly for the