…according to my daughter’s teacher. Yes. This is the same teacher that has a poster in her room depicting political philosophy through cows.
The follow-up on that was that I tried unsuccessfully to explain to the teacher that my daughter had apparently missed the joke and obtained some pretty ridiculous assumptions based on the poster. It was defended as something the school district provides to classrooms and that it’s only meant to be analogous.
Well, at least the school year’s almost over and we can hope for better next year. sigh
I dunno, if you’re in fifth grade, you probably don’t know much about Pearl Harbor, and could probably learn a decent amount about it from the Michael Bay movie. Glancing at the list of historical inaccuracies for the film in wikipedia, most of it is stuff like:
Not exactly something thats really devastating to a fifth grade level understanding of WWII.
I wouldn’t recommend watching Pearl Harbor to learn anything about making a decent movie, but the history stuff seems OK.
Ah, no. They would be much better served by watching Tora, Tora, Tora or actually, oh, I don’t know, being taught by a teacher who knows what they’re doing.
So what, specifically, would the movie teach that would be so jarringly false to a fifth-grade understanding of the event? (And this is not a rhetorical question; I’ve never seen the movie and have no idea).
That’s exactly what my husband said. Although, I’m not sure my 11 year old could sit through that.
This teacher likes to teach using stories, which is why I think she decided this movie would be appropriate. I’m all for the value of storytelling as well, but I think the romantic story and all the ridiculous dramatization overshadows the real story.
I would much rather my daughter watch Ken Burns’ The War* as an example of storytelling as a means to better understand the war. There is so much more value in listening to real people talk about real events than watching a dramatization that exists solely to entertain.
In any event, two of our relatives are interviewed in that documentary.
Ok, so maybe Bay’s Pearl Harbor isn’t as historically accurate as his treatment of the Cybertronian Civil War. But it is a great film for teaching fifth graders. It’s a great film for the fifth grader in all of us!
My understanding was that you objected to the historical accuracy.
While I’m sure the actual characters in the film were fictional, I’m equally sure that the event, and the war, involved many romances. So you can hardly criticize it for being blatantly false. You may personally wish to portray war as universally despised, but in point of fact during World War II many people met who would not have otherwise met, fell in love, and otherwise experienced great romance. That is neither wrong nor an objectionable message for the fifth grade.
Well, that wasn’t what you asked. But yeah, that’s a valid reason why I object to that particular choice. We’re talking about 11 year olds here. It’s an unnecessary distraction. If you want to teach about the war, why choose a movie with that kind of distraction when there are so many other far better, far more accurate, far more topical movies, not to mention documentaries, available? It’s just dumb.
Yes, I do.
As a matter of fact, I’m certain that you are correct in that romance was very much a side effect of the war as I am a product of it (my grandparents met as a result of the war). One of the relatives I spoke of also earlier also experienced that.
However, I’m quite certain that’s not the point of this exercise. As such it is a silly distraction that serves no purpose.
The history teacher in me objects to Bay being involved in anything. The love story didn’t bother me. The idea that a pilot could fly for the RAF, be at Pearl Harbor during the attack, and then suddenly transition to a multi-engine ticket so he could take part in the Dolittle raid indicates that the film-maker has made a deliberate decision to throw historical versimilitude out the window.
December 7, 1941 has enough drama and human interest to tell straight. There is zero need for any revisionism. Yes, Pearl Harbor will appeal to 5th graders. But they aren’t educated enough or mature enough to be able to discern where the film-maker changed reality.
As to the historical inaccuracies, my daughter was most impressed that a guy who had peeling potatoes could then shoot down Japs and help the Captain. I find it sad, though, she didn’t even know the name of the real man whose experienced was **dramatized **in that movie.
They showed our seventh graders Troy to teach them about the Trojan War.
To my delight, MilliCal came home upset about it and started listing the errors. We brung her up right.
You mean that she thought the newer Brad Pitt fictionalization where everyone is more or less human was less accurate then the slightly older fictionalization by Homer where Gods are running around stabbing people and making prophecies?
Well considering my brief snippet of viewing the movie consists of a dogfight taking place a hundred feet at most from the ground, I’d actually consider him prime material for the Doolittle Raid
I suppose the teacher could use it as a negative teaching tool, the way my high school biology teacher used V and MacGyver. She would give extra credit points for watching the episodes and bringing in a list of scientific inaccuracies.
