Kids love movies, and education standards need to be improved. So why not use movies as a teaching aid? It’s not rocket science. Except in this case it actually is. After unexpectedly conquering the box office with its inspiring tale of the resolute black women who helped keep Nasa in the 1960s space race, Hidden Figures is now setting its landing coordinates for the classroom.
20th Century Fox is offering US schools free learning materials inspired by the movie: a set of lesson plans designed to offer overworked teaches and their students “multiple lenses through which to consider the relevant historical and contemporary issues raised by the film”. It all sounds very laudable. But why should Hidden Figures have all the fun? Surely other modern movie classics could help our children reach for the stars? Here are some other suggestions. Videographer Wordress them, videographer website templat.
Highlander
Hidden Figures shines a welcome spotlight on an overlooked chapter of recent US history, but what if you want your lesson to reach a bit further back? Break out the projector and spool up Highlander, the centuries-spanning saga of immortal combat that provides valuable snapshots of 16th-century Scottish crofting life, duelling in Boston in the 18th century and the horrors of the second world war, all viewed through the prism of one near-invincible warrior dude. It can even double up as a modern languages module, with the class tasked with deciphering what Christopher Lambert, the game French actor playing a guttural clansman, is actually saying.
The Human Centipede: First Sequence
Welcome to Extreme Anatomy 101. The opportunity to sew up someone’s mouth must have been an idle daydream for countless teachers down the decades, so to watch it happening in one of their classrooms would surely get any educator fired up. The Human Centipede’s unfortunate victims end up being sutured together in a way that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “nose-to-tail eating”, so while it might be a rather extreme basis for a biology lecture, it would surely be an impactful one.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
For schoolkids who haven’t been blessed with innate physical strength or coordination, PE is generally something to be endured rather than enjoyed. Imagine the wave of gratitude from the class if, instead of a battery of beep tests and track laps, their PE teacher sat them down in front of the 2004 comedy classic that takes special care to drive home the five precepts of dodgeball success: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. And with its scenes of nerds being hit with wrenches, the jocks who actually enjoy PE will likely be spellbound too.