Re: Scholastic Does the Right Thing
On Sep 15, 2006, at 5:19 AM, jdiebremse wrote: --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: In an impressive display of agility, educational publisher Scholastic has cancelled their planned distribution of study guides to accompany the "Path to 9/11" miniseries and replaced them with a "Media Literacy Discussion Guide" that focuses on helping high-schoolers learn how to think about and interpret what they get from the media. Here's Scholastic's statement on the matter: http://www.scholastic.com/medialiteracy/ And the Media Literacy materials themselves: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=175 Just imagine if religious conservatives had gotten the material on a Scholastic study guide changed. Actually, I believe Scholastic changed the guide because they themselves recognized that the "Path to 9/11" film was flawed, unnecessarily divisive and ill-timed. I think it is telling that it was replaced by a "Media Literacy" curriculum. I don't think they just caved to all that pressure from us crazed liberals, I think that they felt that the film was so flawed that what students needed was to know how to view it critically. As to your "Just imagine", here you go: a bit of imagining... NBC is famously preparing a strongly pro-choice "Path to Choice" miniseries, which they tout as "based on the 'NIH Study on Conception and Life'". The film is previewed to a select group of pro-choice bloggers, NOW, ARAL and other so-called "abortion advocates". The film is know to make numerous false statements about when life begins, and shows well-known persons shown doing and saying things that they had not done, in service of the film's agenda. In one scene that draws a lot of fire, it shows a top Focus on the Family staffer deciding to have an abortion, reasoning that life probably begins after a baby takes his or her first breath. Scholastic gets involved to create a study guide for what they feel is an important portrayal of a vital issue or our time. Their curriculum repeats the misleading portrayals in the film, bringing its biased pro-choice message to 100,000 high schools and painting James Dobson as a bit of a fraud. Right-to-life advocates -- spearheaded by James Dobson, furious at how Focus on the Family's position had been misstated -- mount a huge campaign pointing out the flaws in the film and asking NBC to correct its errors or can it. NBC decides to air the program largely intact, including the misleading scenes. Further pressure is brought on Scholastic, which decides to deliver a neutral curriculum on "Making Difficult Ethical Decisions" instead. Would I be upset by this outcome? Not at all: I would applaud Scholastic for declining to be involved in a smear against Dobson and for refusing to push one view of a highly divisive issue down the throats of millions of kids. Dave Actual Values Voter Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scholastic Does the Right Thing
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In an impressive display of agility, educational publisher Scholastic > has cancelled their planned distribution of study guides to accompany > the "Path to 9/11" miniseries and replaced them with a "Media Literacy > Discussion Guide" that focuses on helping high-schoolers learn how to > think about and interpret what they get from the media. > > Here's Scholastic's statement on the matter: > > http://www.scholastic.com/medialiteracy/ > > And the Media Literacy materials themselves: > > http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=175 > Just imagine if religious conservatives had gotten the material on a Scholastic study guide changed. JDG ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scholastic Does the Right Thing
On Sep 9, 2006, at 9:32 AM, Dave Land wrote: Folks, In an impressive display of agility, educational publisher Scholastic has cancelled their planned distribution of study guides to accompany the "Path to 9/11" miniseries and replaced them with a "Media Literacy Discussion Guide" that focuses on helping high-schoolers learn how to think about and interpret what they get from the media. Here's Scholastic's statement on the matter: http://www.scholastic.com/medialiteracy/ And the Media Literacy materials themselves: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=175 Of course, that these materials could be used _just_ as well to to teach kids how to decide what to think about "Fahrenheit 911" as the "Path to 9/11" miniseries. Which is good. I'd much rather have kids learning how to do research and investigate on their own than have them accept, without thinking, *anything* that comes from the mouth of folks such as Carlson, O'Reilly, Olbermann or anyone else. I wonder if ABC will show anything like this kind of class? Will they follow CBS's lead on the Reagan docudrama and relegate it to "ABC Family" or another Disney-owned cable outlet? Doesn't look that way. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scholastic Does the Right Thing
Folks, In an impressive display of agility, educational publisher Scholastic has cancelled their planned distribution of study guides to accompany the "Path to 9/11" miniseries and replaced them with a "Media Literacy Discussion Guide" that focuses on helping high-schoolers learn how to think about and interpret what they get from the media. Here's Scholastic's statement on the matter: http://www.scholastic.com/medialiteracy/ And the Media Literacy materials themselves: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=175 Of course, that these materials could be used _just_ as well to to teach kids how to decide what to think about "Fahrenheit 911" as the "Path to 9/11" miniseries. I wonder if ABC will show anything like this kind of class? Will they follow CBS's lead on the Reagan docudrama and relegate it to "ABC Family" or another Disney-owned cable outlet? Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
