# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![McGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@McGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McGeek)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/101 "2009-12-16T19:58:28Z")
[quote=“FriarTed, post:64, topic:521227”] “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. " Well, as I posted earlier, I only read the book (when I was maybe 12), did not see the movie. But reading the book, I definitely did feel for Sooner most painfully during the stoning of her bird. She had never been around kids her own age, and could not find a way to tell them the bird had always been lame and could not fly, mostly because she was afraid they would see the bird as “not good enough”, even though she had always loved it. One kid started throwing pebbles because they wanted to see the bird fly, and rather than tell the kids the bird COULDN’T fly, she let it go on, not realizing it would escalate out of hand. The whole scene was a blatant parallel to her adoptive mother’s attitude toward Sooner herself. Her husband, a sheriff, had rescued Sooner from an abusive home and brought her home to cheer up his wife who was depressed over not being able to have a baby. Of course the wife resented not having been asked first, and also viewed Sooner as being “not as good” as a natural child, or a child whom she’d had since its infancy. Sooner was craving a mother and a bit in awe of this nice pretty lady. Meanwhile the nice pretty woman was holding her at arm’s length. That rejection was crueler than Sooner allowing the kids to hurt her bird, since the woman was old enought to know better, while Sooner was only a child. This becomes the big turning point. The wife starts out horrified at Sooner’s part in the incident, but when she questions Sooner and Sooner gets to the point af explaining that she was afraid the other kids would think her pet wasn’t good enough, the woman breaks down, telling Sooner, “He was YOURS.” And she realizes she has been treating Sooner the way Sooner treated her bird when the other kids were around. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/102 "2009-12-16T21:48:46Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I’m pretty sure they don’t show the aforementioned Johnny Appleseed anymore, since it contained song verses like this: > The Lord is good to me > And so I thank the Lord > for giving me the things I need > the something something and the apple trees > The Lord is good to me. [The sun, the rain, and the apple seed.](http://bussongs.com/songs/johnny_apple_seed.php) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/103 "2009-12-17T01:06:26Z")
The cast of Annie talks about menstruation? How’s that go? The cramps’ll come on, tomorrow– Bet your bottom dollar, That tomorrow- I’ll have cramps. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I’ll love cramps Tomorrow… They tell me no baby today! (it’s the best I can do after a long day at work). ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/104 "2009-12-17T04:00:27Z")
> [@McGeek](#): > > and another high school teacher who showed his class the trippy animated movie “The Point” with music by Harry Nilsson, narration by one of the Beatles, and the main character voiced by Bobby from the Brady Bunch. I think his educational justification was that the “point” of the movie was about discrimination. Oh, my god, I remember that movie! They put it on for us at daycare one day, and it was so very boring that I was the only child that hadn’t wandered away by the end. I just recalled another one. We Southern Californian children were frequently subjected to assemblies in which we watched films featuring the uninspired character “Ricki the Raindrop.” Ricki, presumably in a desperate campaign for self-preservation, encouraged us never to water our lawns or flush our toilets. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/105 "2009-12-18T14:01:28Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > 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… [Telezonia](http://www.retroist.com/2009/03/04/telezonia-1974/) ---
**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 18, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/106 "2009-12-18T15:36:43Z")
“Come back, zinc! Come back!” ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/107 "2009-12-18T17:54:11Z")
We watched _A Clockwork Orange_ in 20th Century History. I went to a private school and seriously doubt that they could’ve shown that movie in public schools at the time; I’m sure they couldn’t even show it in the same private school now. Talk about explicit. We also saw a couple of videos of live births in biology when we were talking about sex education. It was actually very smart of them to show those videos - I think most of us were pretty religious about protection after seeing that. Oops - just realized these were school movies. A Clockwork Orange was obviously not a school movie, but it was shown to every class that took U.S. History. The live births were designed for sex ed to be used in school, though. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/108 "2009-12-18T19:16:11Z")
We saw some short artsy film about a bean sprout being planted in a pot in Paris. As it grew for a day, the picture went from b&w to color and the city became a cheery place. At the end of the day, the plant wilted and withered and the picture went back to b&w. I think a miserable old woman owned the plant. We saw it several times; once for French class, and the rest, I don’t know why. This would be in the late '60s. Also, Johnny Tremain, Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, The Red Balloon, Donald in Mathmagic Land, and numerous anti-pollution and anti-discrimination films. ---
**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 18, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/109 "2009-12-18T19:17:42Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > We saw some short artsy film about a bean sprout being planted in a pot in Paris. As it grew for a day, the picture went from b&w to color and the city became a cheery place. At the end of the day, the plant wilted and withered and the picture went back to b&w. I think a miserable old woman owned the plant. We saw it several times; once for French class, and the rest, I don’t know why. This would be in the late '60s. Also, Johnny Tremain, Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, The Red Balloon, Donald in Mathmagic Land, and numerous anti-pollution and anti-discrimination films. I remember that, too! I remember the miserable old woman. I vaguely remember a scene where some “rowdy kids” are playing ball and the ball rolls a few feet away from the bean sprout and the old lady’s all pissy and protective of the damned bean sprout. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227.md?page=5)