STEVEN SPIELBERG’S LINCOLN SCREENED AT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL
The two-time Academy Award® winning film will be gifted for school use

Los Angeles, CA and Denver, CO – April 19, 2013 – Participant Media, working together with Big Picture Instructional Design, has selected local Abraham Lincoln High School as one of only 15 high schools from around the country to receive an award as part of their national Stand Tall: Live Like Lincoln High School Screening Campaign.

Chad Boettcher, Executive Vice President of Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, said, “Prior to the film’s release, we engaged Penn Schoen Berland to conduct a research study to help inform the focus of our Social Action campaign for Lincoln. Among the findings of the study was that more than half of Americans think it’s important to learn about Lincoln, but two thirds say they know little to nothing about him, which clearly indicated the need to remind citizens about the 16th President’s accomplishments.”

As a result, this unique high school screening campaign, “Stand Tall: Live Like Lincoln,” is designed to use the film to spark educational conversations on the film’s themes of leadership, civic engagement and public service. Discussions will be facilitated using Disney’s distributed curricula as well as a series of standards-based extension activities and discussion prompts that were crafted by Big Picture Instructional Design. Throughout the month of April, the film will be screened at 15 different high schools in 15 different states across the country. In addition to receiving their own copy of the film and its accompanying collateral materials, all the schools will receive a package of brand new audio-visual equipment.

Won’t Back Down is a film that is a work of fiction that looks to the utilization of parent trigger laws as a strategy for school reform. I want to emphasize the word fiction for anyone who may have missed it the first time. Much has already been written about the film (either for or against it). I would like to share what I know to be non-fiction based on my 25 years of practice as an accomplished teacher.

These things I know…

1. I am one of “those” kids. When speaking of kids living in poverty, many people refer to “those” kids. This is not a reason to feel sorry for them (or me) or to make excuses about why we cannot learn. But this is the first step in creating separation between people and factions. In Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children, she suggests that as long as we consider “those” children as other people’s children and not “our” children, we will never provide all students the education that they need and deserve. Pronouns can mean a lot. I have been one of “those” kids and can speak from experience about what “we” need and what we don’t. But even those whose demographic data is different can help support our children. All of them.

2. Perpetuating separation and divisiveness maintains the status quo.
Pitting parents against unions, teachers against parents, Teach for America teachers against career teachers, veteran teachers against novice teachers and ed reformers against unions, ensures that we stay mired in division that simply maintains the situation as it is. Casting blame and shame only perpetuates the false dichotomy of us versus them. Meanwhile, our kids sit by, day after day, while adults play power games at their expense.

3. Meaningful change requires collective action. Margaret Wheatly in Leadership and the New Science, suggests that, “Real change happens…only when we take time to discover what’s worthy of our shared attention.”

As it turns out, it’s not so difficult to identify factors that are worthy of our shared attention. For example, teacher evaluation must improve to encourage individual teachers’ growth and, when necessary, allow for dismissal. School leaders need to be equipped with the tools and resources necessary to support teaching and learning. We need to rethink school design so that we can tailor instruction to students’ needs.

But creating systemic and sustainable change will require us ALL to work together to redesign the system for our kids. And teachers must play critical roles in identifying solutions—for we will be the ones who bring the changes to life in the classroom each day.

4. We WILL change the system, when we actually muster up enough will to do so. As long as all of the different factions involved in education hold tight to oppositional roles, we will not muster the will to actually change anything. When we REALLY decide that ALL students deserve a quality public education—when that becomes our genuine priority and is the outlet for our energy and motivation— then we will make that change happen. It is as simple as that!

5. Our kids and our country deserve better.

I, for one, am ready to collaborate. Are you?

I don’t care what factions you’re part of, what label you wear, or what your (or your organization’s history) may have been. I am willing to work alongside all who are truly dedicated to supporting the collective action and systemic change that is so sorely needed by our most vulnerable kids.

Our kids do not have time to waste on adults slinging mud like children… Our kids (and our country) deserve a better public education system, and I intend to help provide it for them.

Who among us is willing to lift themselves up out of the divisiveness, connect around a common vision and create a system that works for all children? While some “won’t back down”, I “Will Stand Up”, for kids, for our community and for my profession.

Won’t you join me by helping build bridges on a foundation of common ground? Share this article with someone who you might not normally consider “on your side”, and have a conversation about our kids

Lori Nazareno, NBCT
Teacher in Residence
Center for Teaching Quality
NEA, CEA, DCTA Member