The War on Kids

Yes, this is worth watching (for those who want a simple review) BUT... Seeing as the topic here is education, and therefore requiring 'serious' discussion, I feel it best to raise some thoughts with other people who have or might watch this. The reason being is that there are a lot of misquoted 'facts', conjecture and flawed logic used in this documentary. The first segment about security is something I cannot comment on other than to say that it seems to be very unpleasant from the perspective of a student. However, it would have been nice to have had some counter-arguments. In fact, that's one of the main flaws to this documentary is it's very 'prescriptive'. Students are interviewed about their feelings on various topics as if their ideas are proof of the point the documentary maker is trying to make - one person or a group of people stating 'this is how it is' is merely opinion and not fact. It IS important to consider the students themselves and how they feel about the environment around them, but it's vital to also consider that children do NOT necessarily know what's right or best for them. Suppose I had an extremely bad time at school (in fact, my school days were unpleasant but not awful) - would that mean that the school was wrong! Or that the teachers were repressive! Or that it was the school that 'forced' cliques to form! In regards to that last point, we can clearly see that people naturally form cliques at any stage of life and educational level (that's not to say that such behaviour is good, though). And while there is apparently no research supporting the use of homework, it's a big leap to presume that it's wrong simply because some interviewed kids didn't like doing it - inevitably, we all have to do various things in life that we don't particularly want to do but that doesn't mean that doing them is wrong (or right). I even laughed out loud when the TEACHER (yes, a teacher) states that schools forcing kids to read specific books and deconstruct them leads to the kids disliking the book. Hmm, I can see how that might seem okay from one perspective but isn't the development and exercising of critical faculties a GOOD thing! Kids can, and do, read outside of school and read whatever they like - school isn't forcing people to be joyless or overworked. Another funny part was the kid saying 'if you're in summer you're like oh man you're like so free and you're happy and then you go to school and nothing is good any more' - consider how many kids ANYWHERE at ANY TIME would say differently. Between a choice of work and lounging in the Summer sun, most adults would also choose the sun if they could, but most of us don't because we need the money earned from work. Lack of desire is not the same as lack of necessity or benefit. Further still, pundits like Ms Couture tell us how school is 'forcing' us all to be ignorant and not to question anything so that it churns out variants of a template - an interesting perspective...But wait, isn't she also a product of that educational system and isn't she able to think for herself and rebel against what she was taught? It's an interesting paradox because she's simultaneously proving her own stupidity and lack of foresight while also lending credence (not PROOF) to what she's saying by the simple act of being so stupid. Okay, this isn't a philosophy discussion so I'll end it here. My point is this: documentaries like this MAY raise some interesting topics BUT in an educated society they MUST NOT stoop to prescriptive ideologies or propaganda or else they're resorting to a perspective of 'we want you to believe this BECAUSE WE SAID SO!'

This reminds me of schooling in South Africa during Apartheid and even now. One would have thought that coming from such a suppressed past it would have changed the way education progressed, but suffice to say there is too much of a parallel between the two, that being the USA and RSA schooling systems. Here in the UK now, things are done a bit differently but slowly there is the introduction of lock-ins and CCTV. I am a bad product of a child who was put on Ritalin and Prozac at the age of 14, (IN RSA) until I started to wean myself off the poison, without telling anyone. I do believe that it has messed me up for life, I am in the later part of my 30's now. I was a bright friendly, happy but fidgety soul, who was very creative with a rather high IQ. These drugs took me to the depths of depression and I do believe messed me up for life. It has taken years of conscious contemplation to try to adjust to the fact that I AM NORMAL as not everyone learns in the same way. Please make more people aware of this film.........p. s: not to mention what I feel the drugs have done to my physically!

Eye opener on the US, just imagine what they will be like in 10 to 15 years time. Most of the things shown and talked about in the film are shocking and disturbing ( I'm talking more about the treatment towards the students side of the things here), but at the very end of the movie is a scene that just freaked me out... That is plain sick stuff, I mean your brain has to be rotten to do such a thing to a young child calmly sitting in a chair, what law ware they basing their actions upon? If that is considered legal in the mighty US of A then you're so ****** screwed up America.....