Won’t Back Down

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

Should parents be forced to enter lotteries in order to give their children a better education? Despite the “leave no child behind” policies, are some segments of the nation’s youth being warehoused instead of really educated? Can disparities between have and have not schools be corrected? If so, how? What, besides funding, contributes to a good school?

In this film, two women decide to take over their school. In a less adversarial or extreme scenario, how can parents work with teachers and administrators to improve their schools? How can schools work better with parents?

What factors that affect education are not addressed in this film? How can receiving a good education be hampered by poverty, hunger, lack of parental involvement or education, media use such as television and video games, deficient discipline or support at home, and disrespect for teachers?