Playing "Follow the Money" with History

Source: Boston Seaport.

Boston Tea Party or Amusement Park Ride

The culture wars being waged in state legislatures around the country are making teaching an impossible profession.

There’s a rock, and a hard place, and then there’s a classroom. Consider the dilemma of teachers in New Mexico. In January, the month before the state’s Public Education Department finalized a new social-studies curriculum that includes a unit on inequality and justice in which students are asked to “explore inequity throughout the history of the United States and its connection to conflict that arises today,” Republican lawmakers proposed a ban on teaching “the idea that social problems are created by racist or patriarchal societal structures and systems.” The law, if passed, would make the state’s own curriculum a crime.

Source: The New Yorker.

This all reminds me of when I used to "help" my sons with their history lessons in elementary school.

Lucy and Desi (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Lucy and Desi (2022): Amy Poehler's documentary about DesiLu, the original power couple in Hollywood. Talented, ambitious workaholics. Doesn't shed much new light on the well-publicized famous couple. This homage pairs nicely with last year's drama "Being the Ricardos." B-

TIL: Education is an Art, not a Science

Today I learned education is an art, not a science. Before I get to how I learned that, let's go back to last week, when I couldn't understand why Richardson ISD needed to hire a consultant to develop an RISD Graduate Profile. Here's a profile that I offer to RISD, for free. A graduate is a person who is curious. Period. That's it. If you aren't curious, you haven't been educated. If you are curious, you're set for lifelong learning. QED.

Lead Me Home (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Lead Me Home (2021): Oscar-nominated documentary short. Portrait of homelessness on West Coast. Lets the people and encampments do the talking. It's a big problem now and it's just getting bigger as it's swept under the rug. B+

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My ranking of the five nominees:

• Lead Me Home: B+
• Three Songs for Benazir: Life in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. Focus is on Shaista and his wife Benazir, two normal kids in a world that's messed up. B+
• Audible: Follows a high school football team of deaf players. Doesn't heroize or exploit. The kids have the dreams and tragedies of everyone. B-
• The Queen of Basketball: Portrait of “Lucie” Harris, the first women's basketball superstar. Great subject, mostly her talking. B-
• When We Were Bullies: Not available. Grade TBD.
  (Update: May 20, 2022: Film maker relives an instance of him bullying another kid in his childhood and interviews old classmates about what they remember. Tactless bullying the kid all over again, in adulthood. C-)

Turning Red (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Turning Red (2022): Pixar. Adolescent girl's anxieties strain her relationship with mother. Outbreaks turn her into a giant red panda. She works through it. It's all part of growing up. 13-year-old girls should like it. Mothers, maybe not. Boys? Dunno. Lost on younger kids. B-