# School movies they probably don't show anymore **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227 "2009-12-14T16:50:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/61 "2009-12-15T08:15:36Z")
Man, they showed some traumatizing stuff in the schools. I attended middle school and high school in the 80s, and don’t remember the most traumatizing stuff. I do remember seeing the made-for-TV movie about the founder of MADD, which showed the death of her daughter after being hit by a drunk driver (complete with a scene of the bloodied child dying in the ER)and an after-school special called “Not My Kid” about some girl who started using drugs and was placed in a residential treatment program. They had AA-style meetings every week in which everyone said “We love you, [teen’s name]” after each teen’s testimony. For a long time after that, I heard groups of kids saying “We love you, Katie” or “We love you, Susan” to their friends at school. On a less disturbing note, does anyone remember “Rookie of the Year”? I remember they showed it to us every year during middle school. It was about a girl who wanted to play in her brother’s Little League team, and the reaction of the community and her teammates. Oh yeah, they also showed us “How Can I Tell if I’m Really in Love?” in my senior-year Contemporary Living class. It was hosted by Jason and Justine Bateman, and contained testimonials from real teenagers with bad 80s hair and ugly sweaters, and cameos from celebrities - I remember Ted Danson discussing boys pressuring girls into having sex, and singing the words “if you love me” to the tune of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/62 "2009-12-15T08:24:05Z")
> [@Lucky\_13](#): > > Man, they showed some traumatizing stuff in the schools. I attended middle school and high school in the 80s, and don’t remember the most traumatizing stuff. I do remember seeing the made-for-TV movie about the founder of MADD, which showed the death of her daughter after being hit by a drunk driver (complete with a scene of the bloodied child dying in the ER)and an after-school special called “Not My Kid” about some girl who started using drugs and was placed in a residential treatment program. They had AA-style meetings every week in which everyone said “We love you, [teen’s name]” after each teen’s testimony. For a long time after that, I heard groups of kids saying “We love you, Katie” or “We love you, Susan” to their friends at school. > > On a less disturbing note, does anyone remember “Rookie of the Year”? I remember they showed it to us every year during middle school. It was about a girl who wanted to play in her brother’s Little League team, and the reaction of the community and her teammates. > > Oh yeah, they also showed us “How Can I Tell if I’m Really in Love?” in my senior-year Contemporary Living class. It was hosted by Jason and Justine Bateman, and contained testimonials from real teenagers with bad 80s hair and ugly sweaters, and cameos from celebrities - I remember Ted Danson discussing boys pressuring girls into having sex, and singing the words “if you love me” to the tune of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” I don’t remember those, but I remember one from the early 90’s about steroid abuse that was hosted by Max Casella, Dougie Howser’s best bud Vinnie Delpino. I don’t remember anything he said except for, “boys who abuse steroids may even begin to develop breasts.” That was a weird line to come out of that person. It’s always odd when celebs make educational videos like that. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/63 "2009-12-15T09:04:55Z")
“Cipher in the Snow” was mentioned in the other thread, which I recall seeing. It seemed a rather depressed movie (in the sense that it doesn’t make you depressed to watch it, but it’s like hanging out with someone who’s depressed when you’re not - oddly annoying but you don’t want to criticize it). We also watched a bunch of old films my teacher found in the archive, to see if they were still worth showing. I remember one auto safety (for pre-driving age kids) one that was just silly - instead of getting squashed flat, ‘Dopey’ (I think he was called) got pushed straight off screen by a train. Another one (probably made in the 1950s or 60s) extolled the virtues of America, subtly suggesting that children in Communist countries don’t get to play with toys. We also saw that a young boy who wiped his nose on his shirt sleeve ended up with the Plague, apparently. He nearly went to the hospital over that. And of course in German class, the _Guten Tag_ series. Some of the funniest, most surreal educational films ever made. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/64 "2009-12-15T10:23:14Z")
I just got here- a lot of these I never saw in school but at the public library’s kids film series that was done every Summer and on the Children’s International Film Festival hosted by Kukla, Fran & Ollie. The former always showed “Paddle…” and the Freddie Bartholomew “Treasure Island” while the latter always showed “Fatty & Skinny”, an Asian film about two best friends who were & how other kids made fun of F & one day S got caught up in making fun of F too & I’m sure you can fill in the rest (it did end happily). I graduated H.S. in 1980 and apparently was in a rare time where they stopped showing the driving safety carnage films. God, I’d love a copy of “The Electric Grandmother”, a perfect adaptation of my favorite Ray Bradbury story “I Sing the Body Electric”. I was way past high school when it came out. “A Girl Named Sooner” was filmed in a nearby county. It probably got shown in school tho I mostly remember seeing it on TV. And of course all I remember is the bird being stoned & how Sooner just stands stupidly by & lets it happen. I never felt for her but I did feel for the little bird. Another thought about “Paddle to the Sea”, an episode of “Northern Exposure” was built around Chris reading the story book over the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/65 "2009-12-15T11:05:43Z")
There was a film I remember seeing in grade-school or Jr High. I was surprised to see it’s on YouTube. Durring sex ed, the boys were separated from the girls, each to watch their own movies. We (the boys) watched [Am I Normal?](http://video.google.com/videosearch?complete=0&hl=en&source=hp&q=sex%20ed%20film%20zoo%20lion&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#emb=0&hl=en&q=Am+I+Normal%3F+1979&view=3&qvid=Clips&vid=1516441311024921875). The whole thing was pretty cringe-worthy. It’s about a boy going through puberty and trying to understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/66 "2009-12-15T12:48:47Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > As a kid in the UK they aired plenty of PIFs (public information films) between Television for Schools. Some of those were frightening. > > … > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XshVLgJjw\_4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XshVLgJjw_4) I like [the remix](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NY5cX0d4_g)! **installLSC** , your link to Donald in Mathmagicland didn’t work, but you got me to search for it [and here it is](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fks_6d1prC8). I LOVE THAT! We have a VHS but we haven’t watched it for ages. I’m cuing up **Paddle to the Sea** and will be watching several others mentioned. Thanks to all. I don’t remember seeing any of these in school. We usually had health movies. One in particular that struck me as bizarre was when the two all-American kids in the film had to go to bed at 7:00 pm! My parents were particularly lax about us having a set bedtime, and I rarely went to bed before midnight. 7:00?!!?!?! My jaw hit the floor. We also got a lot of Factory movies, how things were made. I loved those. The only movie-movie I remember seeing in school was a showing of [Wait Until Dark](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0062467/) (with Audrey Hepburn) in the auditorium. Freaked me out, gave me nightmares, and when I look back, what in the world were they thinking by showing that movie in school, and now I wonder who was the cool person whose idea it was? ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/67 "2009-12-15T14:15:05Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > I remember one from the early 90’s about steroid abuse that was hosted by Max Casella, Dougie Howser’s best bud Vinnie Delpino. I don’t remember anything he said except for, “boys who abuse steroids may even begin to develop breasts.” That was a weird line to come out of that person. It’s always odd when celebs make educational videos like that. It’s also weird to later see them show up as goons on _The Sopranos_. I kept wanting to say, “Does Doogie know you’re here?” ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/68 "2009-12-15T14:20:13Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > Inspired by this thread: > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11884319#post11884319](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11884319#post11884319) > > The above thread references an old movie they used to show us in school, with a street cat being fed tuna on the sly by a little boy. I hadn’t thought of it maybe since 6th grade or the last time I saw it, but just reading the description brought it back with astonishing clarity. So I wondered about other movies like it that kids probably don’t see anymore. > > **Paddle to the Sea** came to mind. A little wooden Indian in a toy canoe going down the river. That’s all I remember. But we were shown that movie every year, including the year we did an overnight at Mystic Seaport. And I remember that I was thrilled to see it, every time. > > Any others you might remember? > > Wow! Just went to Youtube and found it. Goddam the interweb is an interconnected series of tubes going all the way back to Colchester CT circa 1972. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfQuTBmW4RU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfQuTBmW4RU) This is quite lovely. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to get lost in the sea of Youtube looking for the extraordinary cheesy sex ed flick that we watched in high school that were from the 60’s and just so wrong. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/69 "2009-12-15T15:23:32Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > 1. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An\_Occurrence\_at\_Owl\_Creek\_Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge)). Yeah, if I had a nickel for every time I saw that one. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/70 "2009-12-15T15:26:56Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > Holy shit! Nightmares for a year I would have had. > > Does no one remember Paddle to the Sea? Sure…I remember how they poured molten lead in the bottom for ballast, how the boat went downstream bouncing off of obstacles and ended up in a harbor (unless my mind is playing tricks on me). I think of that movie everytime I throw a stick in the creek with my little girls. I’ll have to check out the youtube later (can’t at work). We saw Casey at the bat and the one where (mild mannered) Mr. Walker turns into (crazed driver) Mr. Wheeler. Plus Jason and the Argonauts in 5th and 6th grade (because we could handle it :)) ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/71 "2009-12-15T15:30:55Z")
I remember seeing some video from [Pat Hurley](http://www.pathurley.org/) though now that I think about it, it may have been at church when I saw it. It was pretty awseome though, it had this kid in it who played the brother from the carshed space ship in the Ewok movie (I can’t believe I remember all this crap). Then when I was a senior in high school, Pat Hurley came and spoke there one night. That was freaking awesomer. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/72 "2009-12-15T16:16:15Z")
> [@Lucky\_13](#): > > On a less disturbing note, does anyone remember “Rookie of the Year”? I remember they showed it to us every year during middle school. It was about a girl who wanted to play in her brother’s Little League team, and the reaction of the community and her teammates. The only movie I remember with that name and that I could find from googling was a feature film from 1993 about a boy who gets to play in the major leagues. Are you sure yours is called that? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/73 "2009-12-15T16:37:45Z")
[San Francisco: The City That Waits to Die!](http://apparentdip.blogspot.com/2007/01/san-francisco-city-that-waits-to-die.html) Awesome pre-disaster parable, it had bikers, worried scientists with horn rim glasses and Mama Cass. The thing scared me so much it’s about all I remember from high school geology. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/74 "2009-12-15T17:20:13Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I’ve often wondered if they still show “The Red Balloon”. I’ve seen other’s reference it and I assume they were in grade school in the '70s, as I was. We got shown this a lot in elementary, as well as Chicken Soup and Rice. In 4th and 7th grades I seem to remember seeing a lot of Revolutionary War movies with kid protagonists. In high school health class they played The Blue Lagoon and The Breakfast Club. There was some random drunk driving film and another where all the kids in the high school were on various drugs until a teacher raids the lockers and makes a big speech at an assembly. Then there were the popular movies with foreign language dubbing for the Spanish classes. I think they had ET. I took Latin though, which I doubt any popular movie has ever been dubbed into besides perhaps that Mel Gibson Jesus movie. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/75 "2009-12-15T17:20:17Z")
They showed us this movie (circa 1974) whose aim was to show how awful prejudice was. Sadly it was done so comically it had the opposite effect, with the majority of kids laughing out loud at some of the scenarios. I seem to recall they singled out Poles, Jews, Asians, and as a topper, they showed a scene from the TV show Amos and Andy. None of us had ever seen A&A before, but the scene had us in hysterics. If someone recalls this mis-fire of a movie, please share the name. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/76 "2009-12-15T17:36:29Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > “Cipher in the Snow” was mentioned in the other thread, which I recall seeing. It seemed a rather depressed movie (in the sense that it doesn’t make you depressed to watch it, but it’s like hanging out with someone who’s depressed when you’re not - oddly annoying but you don’t want to criticize it). I saw that one in Jr. High. It was about some kid who died and no one really remembered much about him including the teachers. The message was to get to know everyone including the weird loners or something. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/77 "2009-12-15T17:38:32Z")
Second plea: Does _anyone_ remember a Bell Telephone (that was the only company in the 70s, wasn’t it?) production about how the phone works? Something appropriate for second graders in the mid-seventies. Lights. Colors. Acid. No, wait… ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/78 "2009-12-15T19:20:29Z")
_Red Balloon_ was shown to us (in the 70s) approximately 56,263 times, I think. Also an anti-smoking film, with a guy that had to have a hole cut in his throat to breathe. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/79 "2009-12-15T20:06:19Z")
We were subjected to these films on a regular basis, but there are two for which the details stick in my mind even though my overall recollection is hazy. One was a film about a class of students who are isolated (locked) in a school overnight who are divided into two competing factions; sort of a limited _Lord of the Flies_ or _The Breakfast Club_ as imagined by Peter Watkins. One group ends up being democratic (led around by a Jeffersonian figure who explains all about democracy but declines to be elected) and the other group are basically a bunch of bullies who take over the school facilities. I’ve looked for it on the[Prelinger Archives](http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger) but haven’t been able to locate it. The other film was about children playing with matches near a car gas tank. What I remember most was a repeated slo-mo closeup shot of the match being lit and thrown at the filler nozzle, then a screen-filling explosion, followed by the narrator talking about how badly burned the children were. They showed us this one repeatedly during assemblies or rainy days, and I swear I had more nightmares about it than I did from John Carpenter’s _The Thing_. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/80 "2009-12-15T21:45:51Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I saw that one in Jr. High. It was about some kid who died and no one really remembered much about him including the teachers. The message was to get to know everyone including the weird loners or something. I hated _Cipher in the Snow_. It basically taught me that all my worst fears were true. I still vividly recall that kid collapsing in the snow, his eyes closed. Ugh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227.md?page=5)