A recent visit to Montreal found us at the MAC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal Fortified with coffee and breakfast treats at Olive et Gourmando on Rue St. Paul, we walked up Rue Saint-Pierre and onto Rue de Bleury to Rue Sainte-Catherine. We managed to miss the entrance – even though it was right in front of us – but nonetheless…
In September we heard Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Oprah Winfrey at the Apollo in NYC. The topic was his first novel The Water Dancer and the ticket price included a copy of the book. The conversation was interesting – Oprah is really good at this kind of thing and she clearly loved the book. And so did I. It’s…
Two Sundays, two documentaries and two very satisfactory movie experiences. The first was Maiden at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY. The second Toni Morrison: The Pieces I am at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck. And before say anything about either film I have to comment on the pleasure of film-going at Indy cinemas like these. Two recent movie going experiences at…
In Ivor Gurney’s nightmarish vision, the dead among the living bear dire warnings and mockery. Ballad of the Three Spectres As I went up by Ovillers In mud and water cold to the knee, There went three jeering, fleering spectres, That walked abreast and talked of me. The first said, ‘Here’s a right brave soldier That walks the dark unfearingly;…
Watch The Masks written and directed by PDS student Haixu Liu – All American High School Film Festival Awards winner. Congratulations Haixu.
“So the children of a democracy learn to take their place in the world of tomorrow.” The British Council has made its film collection public. What a wonderful gift. Take for example Learning to Live. Made in 1941 it presents: A typical school day for the three children of the Brown family at Nursery, Junior, and Senior Schools, and the…
That tweet from Gary Stager reminded me of this scene: Blotting your copybook used to be more than a figure of speech. It was, for some, a frightening everyday reality of life in school. This scene fromThe 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups, 1959), written and directed by Francois Truffaut, resonates with me. Antoine Doinel’s teacher – “Sourpuss” is a…
If blogging is supposed to have an element of timeliness then I have given up on that ideal. After all – I am still writing about stuff from the NAIS annual conference in February. Fess Parker died in March and while my mind went instantly to the Davy Crockett craze of my childhood, it’s only now that I have found…
From: We are the people movie people This landmark independent documentary … explores the education system … and asks whether the current system provides young people with the opportunity to develop their talents. High-profile figures sharing their personal experiences and views include Sir Richard Branson, Germaine Greer, Henry Winkler, Bill Bryson, Sir Ken Robinson and a wide range of education…
Teachers often take a jaundiced eye to films that claim to depict the classroom experience. It’s akin to being skeptical about the newspapers because every time they present a story with which you have actual familiarity they rarely seem to get it right. I saw two excellent films last week. One was Entre les Murs – renamed The Class in…
The world is moving at a tremendous rate. Going no one knows where. We must prepare our children, not for the world of the past. Not for our world. But for their world. The world of the future. – John Dewey (seen saying just that in the film below) Progressive education in the 1940s: I don’t know who made this…
It was a great day in the James Earl Jones theater at PDS yesterday. Dan Gold – a member of the PDS class of 1978 – was there for the first public screening in the Hudson valley of the film he co-directed: Everything’s Cool – a hot documentary about global warming. This is a film that informs and entertains. It…
Why do I stand here? I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly force ourselves to look at things differently The world looks different from up here. If you don’t believe it, stand up here and try it! All of you. Take turns. – Dead Poets Society It’s everywhere – the cliché – the admonition –…