Are Movies a Legitimate Teaching Aid?

This is a very interesting thread!

My granddaughter is visually impaired and a senior in high school. She has had many difficulties with friendships. The other students have done terrible things to her: holding up fingers and asking how many she can see, leaving her in the middle of the dance floor talking to no one at a dance. She walks into the lunchroom and cannot see where people she knows are, and no one comes to get her or call out to her as she wanders and then sits by herself. The feelings regarding these incidents are shown in her poem in the Forever Friends Anthology. I had thought of asking her for a happier poem, but realized she had spoken her feelings and now these are acknowledged in the anthology and that is a good thing. That poem was an honest view of what she has experienced in high school. Poetry writing is great for teenagers.

Now she is a senior and those in her class are older and wiser and friendships and kindness have been improving. Part of it is the others. Part of it is my granddaughter who has learned also. She does very well with adults, and I believe as she enters the adult world she will find that she will have true friends.

Why is it we have so much difficulty with differences?

Abe, I love your history teacher's use of quotes. I believe in any other way of teaching history besides the memorization of names and dates is very positive. History can be fascinating as I've discovered when older.

Carol

Depends on the movie.

When I homeschooled my son, part of his schooling was to raise a guide dog puppy for Guide Dogs of America. So besides reading up on the history of guide dogs I had him watch the movie "Love Leads the Way" which is a movie based on the story of Buddy and Morris Frank. Buddy was the first guide dog in America and Morris Frank was one of the founders of The Seeing Eye. The movie is a very accurate account.

However, I took three psychology courses in college. My Abnormal Psychology professor had us watch two movies in one semester. The movies were "The Virgin Suicides" and "War of the Roses". I hated both movies. I could see her point in having us watch them ... all the main characters in both movies needed help! Sheesh! But I don't know that they were best teaching tools.

It's my opinion that the best way to learn to do something well is to just do it. I paid little attention in school - none at all in math - and never took a book home. But at home I read at least a couple of books a week from the time I was in the fifth grade onward. If you want to write, there is no teacher like reading. That worked just right for me but would be a total washout for someone hoping to be a physicist like one of my cousins. He worked at math every possible minute and that would have driven me nuts. My routine would have done the same for him. Today I couldn't diagram a sentence and am hazy about parts of speech when you get beyond nouns and adjectives, but I know what looks right. What works for one is a drag for another.

Dick,
what you say about how you do things provides support and encouragement to others. We all learn things at our own pace and in our own way. Reading, as you described, gives a sense of what is right. Regardless of how often I re-read what I write there is always something I will miss and there are many things that spell check will not pick up. I now rely on someone else to review what I write and give their critique. Finding someone to review/critique who will be honest is important. Just as important is that the person will recognize your writing style and not trying to impose their own.