Your Film Professor

2 Comments

1. Kristen Titko says:

   January 3, 2017 at 4:34 pm

   Hello Reagan,
   I do so miss your classes!
   My father introduced us to this film when he was here for Thanksgiving. We watched it with him, and then again with our girls. My favorite moment is the scene when the cop comes into the bus to question why the kids aren’t in school. The children, obviously having been rehearsed for such moments, slowly begin a religious onslaught in order to appear to be strict Christians. I loved this so much because having homeschooled my own kids off and on over the years, one thing we had to do is prepare to be questioned on a regular basis. While we didn’t school our kids as rigorously as the kids in the film are, we still saw great success. In fact my youngest tested out of 7th grade and skipped to 8th after having homeschooled for over 3 years of her education. This film is a true delight in that it brings up the question of institutionalized education as the best form – clearly it isn’t best for everyone.

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   • Reagan says:

     January 15, 2017 at 5:13 pm

     Hi Kristin, so great to hear from you! Thanks so much for your thoughtful sentiments! I still very much remember your many wonderful and enlightening thoughts on the films we analyzed! Leave it to your father — who I kind of feel like I got to know via your thoughts of him:) — to expose you to this tremendous film. And, yes, your favorite scene is both funny and interesting, in that Ben and his kids in effect use “normalcy” (Christian fundamentalism talk) as a tool against “normalcy” (e.g., the cop/the law) probably exerting his/its oppressive view of what is “normal” to bear on the NOT “normal” family, part of the larger motif on the many pressures on Ben to “normalize” his alternative way of being. And you were SO smart to home school your “own kids off and on” (I didn’t but did “home school” my daughter over the summers and always attempted to fill in the many gaps of her formal schooling, which I think benefited her greatly) since, as you astutely say, “institutionalized education” is deeply flawed to say the least, though, as the film I think also gets it, it isn’t entirely “institutionalized education’s” fault, as consumerism is a very real detriment to healthy learning. Thanks again for your insightful and experiential thoughts…takes me back to our great exchanges in the (online) “classroom”! Best Wishes, Reagan

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