Listen: The Film
Whoever controls the narrative of public education controls the public perception of the issue.
On TV we have Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, and Waiting for Superman talking about failing schools, low standards, common core, China, and teacher’s unions but rarely do they ever talk about students.
Who is going to tell the story of public education? Is it going to be the corporate-education reformers who haven’t spent a day teaching in their entire lives or is it going to be the students, teachers, and parents who live the realities of these policies everyday in the classroom?
To address this I took last semester off of school to make a documentary that shows the human side of the debate. Nothing is more bureaucratic than education and with the emphasis on test scores it’s easy to forget the human impact that education policies have. By telling the stories of how testing has directly affected students, teachers, and parents those removed from the education sphere are given a window into the realities of what’s happening in classrooms all over the country and students struggling in school feel connected to each other and empowered to use their voices to change the education system.
Below is the trailer, check it out and if you like what you see send me an email at listenthefilm@gmail.com to organize a screening in your community!
About the Author: Ankur Singh is an 18 year old college freshman at The University of Missouri – Columbia who is planning to take off his second semester of school to create a documentary film about standardized testing in America. The film is tentatively titled “Listen,” and focuses on what students themselves have to say about testing culture in the United States.
- See more at: http://stuvoice.org/blog/2013/09/25/listen-the-film/?utm_source=feedly#sthash.4A476N6W.dpuf