Another brick in the wall.

I'm a firm believer in the Story of Stuff. Okay, so the film may play a little fast and loose with the details and definitely ignores the idea of presenting both sides of an issue, but in my view, the message Ms. Leonard is presenting shouldn't be controversial at all, because in large part, it's indisputably true. Critics of the film claim that the message will corrupt the minds of our poor, naive youth. Frankly this underestimates the intellectual capacity of our children and the instructional skill of our teachers, and overestimates the potency of classroom learning tools. While the conservative pundits who lash out against this film may have had the intellectual capacity of an amoeba in grade school, most children are perfectly able to critically analyze and pull out "take-home messages" of popular, accessible works without the vicious and often irrational partisan bias that seems to permeate contemporary political debate. Even if some individuals aren't able to separate some admittedly contestable truths from the facts, the job of the teachers showing the piece is to question these aspects of the film. I'm a firm believer that most good teachers will challenge students to question things they don't agree with. Finally, I'm fairly certain that while parents are freaking out and school boards are reverting to some psycho Fahrenheit 451 mentality (aside on the school that voted the film showed inappropriate bias: every part of the school system is structured to promote and perpetuate the Western ideals of democracy and capitalism. This is inappropriate bias) most students are snoozing. That's right, I said it, most students aren't going to take away much from this movie, particularly when it suggests a complete structural reassessment of society without offering a concrete solution. Some students will, of course, be influenced to...gasp!...stop buying so much shit (and much of the stuff we buy is, frankly, worthless shit), question the perversity of a system that advocates mindless and insatiable consumption, and reassess the way their government works. Just as many students will be provoked to defend this system and assert their right to buy.

The take-away message of this post? To critics and supporters alike...this film is not that serious. Use your energy to propose solutions to the problem that is indisputably going to affect these kids: climate change.