FILMS FOR ACTION
Library
Filter
Sort
View
181-240 of 356
Time to Abolish Columbus Day
Time to Abolish Columbus Day
Once again this year many schools will pause to commemorate Christopher Columbus. Given everything we know about who Columbus was and what he launched in the Americas, this needs to stop.
Bill Bigelow
Swapping Screen Time for Getting Dirty: Why Kids Need to Spend More Time Outside
Swapping Screen Time for Getting Dirty: Why Kids Need to Spend More Time Outside
In his new book “How to Raise a Wild Child,” Dr. Scott D. Sampson argues that the current disconnect between kids and the natural world is a threat to their physical, mental, and emotional health.
Shannon Hayes
The Rebellion Crisis
The Rebellion Crisis
In the pursuit of the perfectly behaved child, we have created conditional environments of reward and punishment which lack empathy, connection, and unconditional love.
Dawn Agnos
ESPEJO - a Short Film About Empathy
ESPEJO - a Short Film About Empathy
"Empathy is not to bring comfort, nor to advise. It is not to judge or try to distract someone from their pain... It means being fully present with the other, to serve as a mirror of their feelings and needs, so that they may find relief and clarity through our attention."
7 min
Class Dismissed: A Film About Learning Outside Of The Classroom
Class Dismissed: A Film About Learning Outside Of The Classroom (2015)
"Class Dismissed shows parents a glimpse into the future of education. Everyone concerned with education would benefit by watching this film." - John Taylor Gatto, Former New York State Teacher of the Year and author
90 min
10 Provocative Quotes from Ivan Illich's "Deschooling Society"
10 Provocative Quotes from Ivan Illich's "Deschooling Society"
Ivan Illich’s groundbreaking book Deschooling Society (1971) offers a radical critique of the institutionalization of education within modern societies. Illich believed that we wrongly identify education with schooling, since most of our education happens outside of the...
Daniel Lattier
History Professor Denies Native Genocide: Native Student Disagreed, Then Says Professor Expelled Her From Course
History Professor Denies Native Genocide: Native Student Disagreed, Then Says Professor Expelled Her From Course
A Cal State Sacramento University professor who allegedly told his United States History class he did not like the term ‘genocide’ in relation to Native Americans in history, told a Native American student who disagreed with him that she was disenrolled and expelled from his...
Vincent Schilling
What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?
What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?
Negative consequences, timeouts, and punishment just make bad behavior worse. But a new approach really works.
Katherine Reynolds Lewis
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sex Education
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sex Education
Sex education varies widely between school districts, leaving many teens without comprehensive information. We made a video that covers what some schools are too embarrassed to teach. 
21 min
Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of Black Women in the Ivory Tower
Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of Black Women in the Ivory Tower (2013) (trailer)
LIVING THINKERS examines the intersection of race, class and gender for Black women professors and administrators working in U.S. colleges and universities today.
5 min
Cost Of Living In America Today Vs. 1980
Cost Of Living In America Today Vs. 1980
Most living expenses have gone up in price since 1980 (even when you adjust for inflation). That includes cars, homes, education - almost everything, except for our paychecks. Here's why paying for a house, a car and a college degree was possible in 1980 - but not so much today.
2 min
Musician Roger Waters Takes The United States to Task
Musician Roger Waters Takes The United States to Task
Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, discusses education in the United States and the world view that sets the US apart from "others".
2 min
Anarchy Now! Chile Elects to Revolt
Anarchy Now! Chile Elects to Revolt
This week we take a look at the 6 plus year student revolt in Chile, plus ballot burning fury in Mexico and an interview with militants from Santiago who tell us about the anarchist scene there.
17 min
Pathways 2 Resilience
Pathways 2 Resilience
Approximately two years ago a collaborative of Oakland based non and for profit companies and organizations including; The Green Life, Earthseed Consulting, Planting Justice, Wildheart Gardens, Impact Hub Oakland, United Roots, Sustainability Economies Law Center, all...
11 min
Indigenous Knowledge Systems / Alaska Native Ways of Knowing
Indigenous Knowledge Systems / Alaska Native Ways of Knowing
'The depth of indigenous knowledge rooted in the long inhabitation of a particular place offers lessons that can benefit everyone, from educator to scientist, as we search for a more satisfying and sustainable way to live on this planet.'
Ray Barnhardt and Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley
The Future of Big-Box Schooling
The Future of Big-Box Schooling
“I think the way western education has grown over the last few centuries, especially with the rise of industrialization, was basically not to create human beings fully equipped to deal with life and all its problems, independent citizens able to exercise their decisions and...
Carol Black
Your Life Can Be Different: 11 Things I'd Like to Tell My Younger Self
Your Life Can Be Different: 11 Things I'd Like to Tell My Younger Self
This is a letter to my younger self - both the inner cynic and the idealist that secretly believes a more beautiful world is possible.
Charles Eisenstein
If We Don't Teach Peace, What Are We Teaching?
If We Don't Teach Peace, What Are We Teaching?
Nonviolence, peace, and justice are not utopian dreams but real and practical ways in which humans can affect the world around them.
David Cook
What If Students Controlled Their Own Learning?
What If Students Controlled Their Own Learning?
Peter Hutton is the principal of Templestowe College, one of the most innovative schools in Australia. He has developed a radical solution, empowering students to control their own learning. No school bell, no year levels. Students take part in the staff selection process and...
15 min
Why Schools Need to Teach and Practice Humanity
Why Schools Need to Teach and Practice Humanity
Schools need to play a major role in developing and creating better humans than merely producing students. We need to question the norm of “Getting excellent results Vs. Being an Excellent human being”. There needs to be a balance in terms of both gaining knowledge and being...
Mithula Guganeshan
A Science Of Teaching
A Science Of Teaching (2015)
A SCIENCE OF TEACHING offers a comprehensive guide for teachers, educators, and anyone else interested in human behavior on how learning occurs at a biological and environmental level. What shapes our behavior? How do our behaviors become reinforced? What are some useful...
42 min
From Graduation to Garbage Job (literally): One Twentysomething's struggle
From Graduation to Garbage Job (literally): One Twentysomething's struggle
 
Jackie Roche
Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education
Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education
Sometimes I find, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me and others feel, I have to speak the truth. We can use all the euphemisms we want, but the literal truth is that schools, as they generally exist in the United States and other modern countries, are prisons. Human...
Peter Gray, Ph.D.
The Unlikely Librarian
The Unlikely Librarian
A story by Our Better World - telling stories of good to inspire action.
4 min
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Standardized Testing
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Standardized Testing
American students face a ridiculous amount of testing. John Oliver explains how standardized tests impact school funding, the achievement gap, how often kids are expected to throw up. 
18 min
It's Time to Rewild the Child
It's Time to Rewild the Child
George Monbiot argues that the more time children spend in the classroom, the worse they do at school because our narrow education system only rewards a particular skill set. He says that when you take failing pupils to the countryside, they often thrive – yet funding for...
3 min
Overcoming the Shock Doctrine
Overcoming the Shock Doctrine
Lately, we’ve been talking about the techniques of manipulation used by the government and mass media, regarding the privatization of public education, and all public benefits. In these first months of legislature, the better part of this manipulation has been aimed at...
Soy Pública
The Hunting Ground
The Hunting Ground (2015) (trailer)
From the team behind THE INVISIBLE WAR, comes a startling exposé of rape crimes on U.S. campuses, institutional cover-ups and the brutal social toll on victims and their families. Weaving together verité footage and first-person testimonies, the film follows survivors as they...
2 min
The NRA Plan to Push Campus Carry
The NRA Plan to Push Campus Carry
In 2014, 14 States around the nation introduced bills to allow guns to be carried on college campuses under the guise that more guns will equal safer schools. In the wake of Sandy Hook, multiple shootings on college campuses, and the up turn in media attention on Campus...
3 min
Anthropology Is so Important, All Children Should Learn it
Anthropology Is so Important, All Children Should Learn it
Anthropology, the study of humankind, should be the first of all the sciences our children encounter, writes Marc Brightman, with its singular capacity to inspire the imagination, broaden the mind and open the heart. Moves to downgrade it in the education system by those who...
Marc Brightman
In Amsterdam, A Revolt Against The Neoliberal University
In Amsterdam, A Revolt Against The Neoliberal University
For three weeks now, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been shaken by a wave of student protests against the neoliberalization of higher education and the lack of democratic accoun
Jerome Roos
Alfie Kohn: The 3 Most Basic Needs of Children & Why Schools Fail
Alfie Kohn: The 3 Most Basic Needs of Children & Why Schools Fail
What students most need, high schools seem almost designed to thwart.
8 min
9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out
9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out (2012)
This 60-minute version of the original 88-minute 2012 documentary 9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out, Final Edition (ESO) was broadcast in 2012 on Colorado Public Television (CPT12) in the USA. It was streamed on PBS national website as a result, and subsequently...
59 min
Slam Poetry Trio Gives Powerful Performance on National TV about the Failures of Modern Education
Slam Poetry Trio Gives Powerful Performance on National TV about the Failures of Modern Education
"The greatest lessons are the ones you don't remember learning."  Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen, members of the Get Lit organization perform "Somewhere in America" on the The Queen Latifah Show.   
4 min
Malala. One Girl. Among many
Malala. One Girl. Among many
Girls from around the world recite the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai to campaign for education as part of Plan's Because I am a Girl campaign.
3 min
This Will Revolutionize Education
This Will Revolutionize Education
Many technologies have promised to revolutionize education, but so far none has. With that in mind, what could revolutionize education? These ideas have been percolating since I wrote my PhD in physics education.
7 min
The Art of Happiness
The Art of Happiness
Based on Dalai Lama's book "Art of happiness". A short illustration of the reckless but powerful human mind. Footage from a trip to India and Nepal in 2012. Shot and cut by Samir Bernardes May the happiness be with you!
9 min
The Innovative and Creative Power of ADHD
The Innovative and Creative Power of ADHD
One psychologist argues that we should consider people with ADHD to be highly imaginative people rather than people with a learning disability.
Angus Chen and Mythili Rao
Free Range Child: Raising Children Connected To The Earth & Their Food
Free Range Child: Raising Children Connected To The Earth & Their Food
"As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud...
3 min
Carl Sagan - A Way of Thinking
Carl Sagan - A Way of Thinking
"Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking." Carl Sagan
9 min
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Student Debt
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Student Debt
John Oliver discusses student debt, which is awful, as well as for-profit colleges, who are awfully good at inflicting debt upon us. Connect with Last Week Tonight online...
16 min
The Permaculture Design Course : Learning to See the World differently
The Permaculture Design Course : Learning to See the World differently
The Permaculture Design Course (PDC) has become one of the most popular standards in permaculture training. Hear from trainers Ben Falk and Mark Krawczyk and from participants during a PDC held in Vermont by Whole Systems Design, about how such courses can teach us to view...
9 min
The Natural Teacher: 10 Ways You Can Add Vitamin "N" to the Classroom & Beyond
The Natural Teacher: 10 Ways You Can Add Vitamin "N" to the Classroom & Beyond
Not long ago I met some dedicated young women who were doing their student teaching at an impressive nature-based preschool. They made it clear that they’d love to pursue careers at similar schools. But they were discouraged about the prospects. Despite growing demand from...
Richard Louv
Everyone Growing Up In Our Culture Was Taught This Game, But It's Not Making Anyone Happy
Everyone Growing Up In Our Culture Was Taught This Game, But It's Not Making Anyone Happy
After you watch this, you may never view the way our culture communicates the same way again.
15 min
Why Children Protest Going to School
Why Children Protest Going to School
Most children in our society protest going to school. Am I telling you something new? 
Peter Gray
Why You Should Take Your Kids Out of School
Why You Should Take Your Kids Out of School
We don't need no education. At least not of the traditional, compulsory, watch-the-clock-until-the-bell-rings kind. As a growing movement of unschoolers believe, a steady diet of standardized testing and indoor inactivity is choking the creativity right out of our kids. The...
Ben Hewitt
A Thousand Rivers: What the Modern World has Forgotten about Children and Learning
A Thousand Rivers: What the Modern World has Forgotten about Children and Learning
The following statement somehow showed up on my Twitter feed the other day:
Carol Black
The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan's Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking
The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan's Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking
Necessary cognitive fortification against propaganda, pseudoscience, and general falsehood.
Maria Popova
This Painting Captures a Disturbing Truth about the History of Our Education System
This Painting Captures a Disturbing Truth about the History of Our Education System
The truth is chilling. But it is a history we should never forget.
2 min
Why Aren't We Teaching Rachel Carson in Schools?
Why Aren't We Teaching Rachel Carson in Schools?
This is what you shall do: love the earth and the sun and the animals… -- Walt Whitman Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962, but I suspect for most people reading it today the information would be fresh, enlightening, and alarming.  I can say that with some...
Robert Shetterly
Her Classmates Drew Swastikas On The Blackboard. Watch What She Did.
Her Classmates Drew Swastikas On The Blackboard. Watch What She Did.
Irshad Manji tells the story of shutting up when she should have been standing up. It was a teachable moment.
2 min
The Lottery of Birth
The Lottery of Birth (2013)
Do you shape the world or does it shape you? Drawing on leading thinkers from around the world, and with a torrent of mind-expanding ideas and information, THE LOTTERY OF BIRTH will make you think again about what it means to be free.
80 min
The Great Fallacy
The Great Fallacy (2013) (trailer)
"“The Great Fallacy,” Paco Vázquez’s dense, lively new film about economic and sociological issues in Puerto Rico, eschews the storytelling form of many contemporary documentaries in favor of an instructive crash course in radical politics. It is propaganda, an educational...
86 min
Student Gives One of the Best Cases Against Teacher Evaluations
Student Gives One of the Best Cases Against Teacher Evaluations
Ethan Young, a student at Farragut High School in Knox County, Tenn., made his case as to why he believes the school district should drop the new national education standards, a set of guidelines that were never voted on by Congress, the Department of Education nor by local...
5 min
Why Do These Kids Love School?
Why Do These Kids Love School? (1999)
This award-winning film features nine unique schools, both public and private, California to East Harlem. In these unique schools, relationship, creative thinking, and direct experience are valued above memorization of facts. As we struggle with issues of how to provide a...
57 min
We Are The People We've Been Waiting For
We Are The People We've Been Waiting For (2009)
This film from the UK looks at several children who do not thrive in conventional schooling for a variety of reasons, and asks how we can bring the best out in each child instead of measuring them against a one-size-fits-all standard and labeling them as failures. "This...
77 min
Ivory Tower
Ivory Tower (trailer)
As tuition rates spiral beyond reach and student loan debt passes $1 trillion (more than credit card debt), IVORY TOWER asks: Is college worth the cost? From the halls of Harvard, to public colleges in financial crisis, to Silicon Valley, filmmaker Andrew Rossi (PAGE ONE...
2 min
Koch brothers help Kansas lawmakers strip teachers of due process rights
Koch brothers help Kansas lawmakers strip teachers of due process rights
The Kansas legislature just passed legislation that strips teachers of  the right to due process, a move pushed by conservative lawmakers who were forced by a state Supreme Court ruling to provide more funding to poor school districts and wanted to get something out of the...
Valerie Strauss
Sir Ken Robinson - How Are You Intelligent?
Sir Ken Robinson - How Are You Intelligent?
"Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it's the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves." Ken Robinson Music: The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Pt. 1: A Veiled Mist, Pt.
8 min
Neil DeGrasse Tyson - The Most Human Activity
Neil DeGrasse Tyson - The Most Human Activity
"We spend the first year of a child's life teaching them to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there."
5 min