Disney movies immoral?

We had an interesting discussion during periods 1& 2 this week about what makes a book/movie moral or immoral. It is difficult to make rules about what is moral or immoral. Once you start drawing lines, you find exceptions. For example, if we say a book/movie is immoral if it includes violence or sexual immorality, then we rule out most books and movies of importance. For example, the Bible is full of violence and examples of sexual immorality (consider the story of David and Bathsheba). Nonetheless, many people in the world hold the Bible to be a sacred book that teaches morality. Shakespeare would definitely be ruled out by this standard.

How are we to judge, then, which books/movies are appropriate for us? Is Beowulf appropriate? After all, it does portray a great deal of violence. It seems that we have to ask ourselves, what is the effect or reading/viewing this violence on me as a reader/audience? Does it create in me violent or dark feelings? Does it promote violent behavior?

Perhaps even more important, we should ask ourselves if the portrayal of human experience in the book/movie is truthful. By truthful I mean:

• it shows that actions have consequences
• it shows that liberty is interlinked with responsibility
• it shows human beings as complex individuals

Does Beowulf glorify violence? Does it show the consequences of violent behavior?
Does the Bible show the consequences of David's affair with Bathsheba?
Does Shakespeare show individual humans as complex?

Using these standards, it would be interesting to evaluate the morality of Disney movies. Many Disney movies show individual characters as either all good or all bad. In real life, people are mostly good with some bad tendencies mixed in. Real human beings are much too complex to pigeonhole as either a hero or a villian. In this sense, Disney could be charged with telling lies. When we see our fellow man as either all good or all bad, doesn't it tend to make us prone to prejudice and bigotry? (Please don't take me too seriously--I like many Disney films and hold no grudges. Please accept the illustration as just that, an illustration.)

I offer these thoughts in the hopes that they will help us be more careful consumers of literature, movies, music, artwork, etc. These ideas are not intended to replace any personal standards you may hold. Rather, they are intended to make you even more critical of what you choose to watch/read within your standards. For example, I know that many in our community choose not to watch rated R movies. Even if you choose not to watch rated R movies, you will still need to decide which PG-13 or PG movies are appropriate for you. I hope that as you make these decisions, you will reflect on these questions:

• How does this affect me?
• Does it tell me the truth?

Note: I will not show rated R materials in my class, ever. Furthermore, I will be highly selective about the materials I present in class.

Ideas for Blogging

If you have any ideas for what to blog about, comment here.

For example:

thinking about ideas like free will vs. determinism
thoughts on a book you are reading
creative writing (poem, short story)
a strange dream
a question about class
What stood out to you the most from class this week?

What is dialogue?

Brainstorm as many responses to the following questions as you can.

1. What is NOT dialogue?
2. What are the characteristics of GOOD dialogue?
3. What habits have I had in the past that will help and/or hinder effective dialogue in Socratic Seminar?

Why bother with Socratic Seminar? A few ideas...

Why bother with world history?

• History helps us solve our problems. I have problems in my personal life for which I might find solutions. Our school, community, nation, society, and global world also has problems that can be enlightened by examining the past.
• The past is prologue. Where we are today is a result of where we have come from. One of the most important things we can do is figure out where we really are NOW. How can we possibly do that without knowing about where we are coming from? Imagine you are in a shopping mall trying to get to Aeropostal. How do you get there? It doesn't matter until you know where you are right NOW. You need to locate the "You are here" star on the mall map. Where is your "You are here" star?
• History helps us deal with change. The world is changing very quickly; just look at what is happening with the price of gas and food, with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with global warming, with natural disasters--like the earthquake in China, Hurricane Katrina, and the tsunami in Southeast Asia. How can we know how to respond to change? One way is to look at how humanity has responded to change in the past. How do churches, governments, schools, families, and other groups respond to change? What have the consequences been?
• The flattening of the world. There is a book called The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman that explains how the world is becoming a level playing field where all nations can compete economically. You can see this happening--just think about the historic opening of China signaled by the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Not only is China changing, but so is India. Remember the old idea that people thought the world was flat until someone came along and told them it was round? This required a major shift in the way people thought about themselves. Well, guess what, now that the world is getting flat, metaphorically, we have to learn to shift our thinking again. History will enable us to do that.
• History is stories about people. Not only are stories just plain fun, they also help us understand ourselves better. They help us look in the mirror and see what we value and what we think.
  

Why bother with literature?

• Literature makes you less selfish. Every person has a story. By learning to recognize this fact, you will become more patient, kind, and aware of the needs of other people. You will withhold judgment because you will know there are some stories that get hidden deep. Just think about someone who made judgments about you without knowing your story. Literature will help you be a better friend, sibling, son/daughter, etc.
  
• Literature is a time machine. Literature takes you places you could never go in this life. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel the world? How about travel through time? Literature written by REAL people living in foreign circumstances lets you go there.
  
• Literature is a window into what people care about. Think about the stories you read as a child. What values were they intended to teach? For example, what values does the story "The Little Red Hen" teach? More mature literature does not always have "a moral to the story." Some of the best literature raises questions and helps you think about what you value. Thus literature is not only a window but also a mirror.

Why bother with language arts (reading, writing, speaking, listening)?

• If you can't write, you can't think. If you can't think, then other people will do your thinking for you.
• I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say (--Flannery O'Connor).
• You need these skills to get a good job. What do you "want to be when you grow up"? I bet you can't do it well without reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
• You need these skills to
  
• Writing unleashes the imagination. Do you remember playing "make-believe" as a kid. Guess what? If you write, you can keep doing it as an adult.
  

Why bother with geography?

• Geography is like the setting of a story. Just think how the setting influences what happens in a story. What if Harry Potter was set in Washington DC instead of Hogwarts? How would that change the story? How would your life be different if you lived in Egypt?
  
• If the world is flattening, you could be doing business with someone in Kyrgyzstan in 5-10 years. Do you know where Kyrgyzstan is? Do you understand the culture of Kyrgyzstan to know how to advertise there? Do you know how to avoid offending someone there?
  
• Places help make us who we are. Places include climate, ecosystem, landforms, language, government, religion, and way of life. Studying geography will help us become more aware of who we are.
  

Why bother with Socratic Seminar?

List the reasons why:

• I should bother studying world history.
• I should bother studying literature.
• I should bother studying language arts.
• I should bother studying geography.

Teacher Censorship

This morning I was debating whether or not to edit out a paragraph from a particular reading I am going to give to my students this school year. The paragraph had some crude references, and I imagined how some parents might react. Scissors poised above photocopy I had just run, the voice of the mini-censorship devil (or angel--you decide) sitting on my shoulder said, "Stop! That's art. It's meaningful."
I was a little surprised at my own hesitation. Traditionally I have had no qualms about censoring art for the sake of saving innocent youthful souls from the Temptor's wiles. In fact, I have scorned the arguments put forth by groups that oppose the editing of movies because it "defaces the film which is a work of art and which belongs to the film producer as the artist." So what! I should be able to choose to watch or not watch what I want, and sometimes I want to be entertained by movies without having to endure "that one scene."
On my way back to my classroom from the copyroom, I ran into a colleague. I thought I'd ask his professional opinion about the passage. His response helped me reframe my thinking. The question I was asking him implicitly was, "Is this passage too crude for my students (i.e., their parents)." The question he answered was, "What does it mean to educate a student so he/she can be an independent consumer of literature (and media)?" His question framed students as agents; mine set them up as biological machines with pre-programmed stimulus-response patterns.
He suggested I keep the passage and use it as an opportunity to address the issue of literature/art consumerism. Ask the students, "What makes a piece of art/literature moral, immoral, or amoral?" And then have them apply their own rules to various examples to see how the rules fail. Have them see how their rules declare the Bible or Shakespeare as immoral. Then ask the students to consider how the work represents or misrepresents truth. Can truthfulness be a standard for judging the moral rightness of a work? How moral are Disney movies then? Help the students consider not just what the work is but what it does. What effect does the work have on me as a consumer?
I'm glad that little censorship devil intervened at the chopping block. I'm reminded that teaching is about helping others to make decisions.

Welcome

Welcome to Mr. Dye's Socratic Seminar blog. I look forward to learning with you this school year.