Utterly Meaningless » Blog Archive » BURN HER
  • BURN HER

    Filed at 3:32 pm under by dcobranchi

    You’ll never guess the source of this statement:

    I shall commit homeschool heresy by saying that, after watching [Jesus Camp], I am inclined to be in sympathy with Rob Reich and Michael Apple who both feel that ’society’ has as much of a claim on the forming of children’s personas as do parents.

    That’s Valerie Moon on her HEM blog. Now I know I have to see it.

    6 Responses to “BURN HER”


    Comment by
    Nance Confer
    October 6th, 2006
    at 3:49 pm

    Like so much of the overblown hype that has been sold by the anti-reality-ists (pick a topic, any topic; they’ve got a statistic and truthiness is all that matters), this movie will come and go and homeschoolers will keep on being the strangely diverse bunch that we are.

    Like discussing Ann Coulter, it seems to me, giving this movie much attention just lines some pockets that don’t deserve it and keeps us all in the gutter.

    Anyone attempting to learn even the smallest bit about homeschooling will do more than rely on this movie’s viewpoint. And for those who want to rely on it, like those who rely on Ann Coulter as a reliable news source, well.. . there isn’t much hope they were really interested in learning about hsing anyway, is there?

    Nance


    Comment by
    Valerie
    October 6th, 2006
    at 5:08 pm

    All I can say is that after sitting through the movie, that was the gut reaction. I wrote that Reich/Apple part of the blog post over a week ago and it sat there because I had to process my reaction longer. I deleted most of the post and re-wrote it.

    I’m the ‘religious one’ in the family which is why I wrote on HSWatch that I don’t know whether to look at the camo-dance sequence as ‘just creative dance,’ or as … something else. Is the use of toys as props just an extension of the ‘flannel board?’ Is weeping just their way? Is that crying just a deep spiritual experience, or not?

    I’m sure Nance is right when she says that homeschoolers will continue to get on with gettin’ on, but the movie is not overblown hype, which is what makes it so compelling — kind of like the scene in Midnight Cowboy where Hoffman and Voigt are walking down the street. You can feel the everyday-ness about these people, but it’s like a parallel universe.

    The people who try to learn about homeschooling after seeing this movie will soon find out what great variety there is. The people who see only the movie, with no interest in homeschooling itself, will be left with a powerful imprint. The impression would be easier to come to grips with if the movie concentrated on the connection between the two things — but it doesn’t. Homeschooling is the transparent water out of which the rocket flies. ????????

    Some of the people in this movie worship 17.1 miles away from where I’m sitting, at least according to Google’s map service (it’s closer as the crow flies). I shop in that town every Christmas with my daughter-in-law. I’ve sat in restaurants while the train went through town. Maybe the movie is easier to watch if it’s ‘somewhere else?’ It’s like seeing your neighbor on the news (good or bad) for something you absolutely never connected your neighbor with. “How did I miss all that?”

    My street still looks the same, but now I know that some of my neighbors aren’t what I see.

    I still, honestly, don’t know what to make of the movie, but the gut reaction after walking out was about Reich and Apple.

    I look forward to other homeschoolers seeing it and reading their opinions.


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    October 6th, 2006
    at 5:29 pm

    Well, it’ll never play within an hour drive of here. If I can’t get a screener (HINT! HINT! to the folks who are promoting Jesus Camp) , I’ll have to wait for the DVD version.


    Comment by
    JJ Ross
    October 6th, 2006
    at 5:29 pm

    I’ve had that thought without this movie. I’ve had it online!


    Comment by
    Ulrike
    October 6th, 2006
    at 9:12 pm

    Some of the people in this movie worship 17.1 miles away from where I’m sitting, at least according to Google’s map service (it’s closer as the crow flies). I shop in that town every Christmas with my daughter-in-law. I’ve sat in restaurants while the train went through town. Maybe the movie is easier to watch if it’s ’somewhere else?’ It’s like seeing your neighbor on the news (good or bad) for something you absolutely never connected your neighbor with. “How did I miss all that?”

    At the same time, it’s also like watching a video of a 4H camp and seeing kids spend all day swimming and canoeing and riding horses and roasting marshmallows and weaving baskets and believing that their life is like that when they get back home. They may do some of those things some of the time, but camp is not real life.


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