Website review: AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: War...
Stumbleine33 discovered this in Politics
•12 reviews since Jun 13, 2007
politics, schools, iraq-war
•alternet.org/rights/54077/
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Reviews of this website
Stumbleine33 discovered 13 months ago- schools are getting ridiculous. aren't you supposed to foster creativity in schools, not stifle it? they just want to train students to be good little cogs in the machine.
- flyingrose rated 13 months ago
- From the page: "High school students in Connecticut weren't allowed to discuss the war, so they wrote a play about it. "Voices in Conflict," was quickly banned by the school, but made it to New York where it brought the audience to tears." More from the page: "I asked the student actors about their opportunities to discuss the war at school. Jimmy Presson, 16 years old, said his U.S. history class has a weekly assignment to bring in a current-event news item, with one caveat: We are not allowed to talk about the war while discussing current events. The students said that they can discuss the war in a Middle Eastern studies class, but, they said, it is not being taught this year. Theater Arts II was the only class in the school where students were discussing the war, Dickinson said. Jimmy added, We also get to speak about it with the military recruiters who are always at school." There are some excellent, insightful reviews of this story.
- artemisluna rated 13 months ago
- Students' play about Iraq, banned from being performed at their high school, now moves a New York audience to tears. From the page: "Bonnie Dickinson has been teaching theater at Wilton High School in Connecticut for 13 years. She and her students developed the idea of a play about Iraq, initially inspired by the Sept. 3, 2006, death of Wilton High graduate Nicholas Madaras from an IED (improvised explosive device) blast in Baqubah, Iraq. The play uses real testimonials from soldiers, from their letters, blogs and taped interviews, and Yvonne Latty's book "In Conflict," with the students acting the roles. The voices of Iraqis are also included.
In mid-March, after students spent months preparing the play, the school administration canceled it. Superintendent Gary Richards wrote: "The student performers directly acting the part of the soldiers ... turns powerful material into a dramatic format that borders on being sensational and inappropriate. We would like to work with the students to complete a script that fully addresses our concerns." (The students have modified the script; they perform Richardsd' letter, its cold, condescending bureaucratese in stark relief with the play's passionate eyewitness testimonials.)" - Students' play about Iraq, banned from being performed at their high school, now moves a New York audience to tears. From the page: "Bonnie Dickinson has been teaching theater at Wilton High School in Connecticut for 13 years. She and her students developed the idea of a play about Iraq, initially inspired by the Sept. 3, 2006, death of Wilton High graduate Nicholas Madaras from an IED (improvised explosive device) blast in Baqubah, Iraq. The play uses real testimonials from soldiers, from their letters, blogs and taped interviews, and Yvonne Latty's book "In Conflict," with the students acting the roles. The voices of Iraqis are also included.
- Karyn rated 13 months ago
- From the page: High school students in Connecticut weren't allowed to discuss the war, so they wrote a play about it. "Voices in Conflict," was quickly banned by the school, but made it to New York where it brought the audience to tears.
The article contains interesting commentary from the author of The Stepford Wives who compliments the students and explains that Wilton, Connecticut, the town where the students attend Wilton High, is also the town on which he based his Stepford wives story.
- Natural rated 13 months ago
- From the page: "Jimmy Presson, 16 years old, said his U.S. history class has a weekly assignment to bring in a current-event news item, with one caveat: "We are not allowed to talk about the war while discussing current events." This sort of thing is not surprising in a country where citizens are not permitted to see the caskets of dead soldiers. In Canada our national media shows each coffin that is brought back from Afghanistan. On the news we see the grieving families and we watch interviews where friends of the deceased talk about their fallen comrade. We have lost 57 soldiers in Afghanistan now, and most Canadians are painfully aware of the individual tragedy of each death. I feel sorry for Americans for the way they are being subjectied to a manipulative distortion of the tragic reality of the war that they have had foisted upon them. Our Canadian neocon Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to make the return of soldiers' coffins a Bush-style secretive matter. This resulted in a massive public outcry; so now we get to see all the details every time a soldier dies.
- imanxman rated 13 months ago
- From the page: "High school students in Connecticut weren't allowed to discuss the war, so they wrote a play about it. "Voices in Conflict," was quickly banned by the school, but made it to New York where it brought the audience to tears." Just the thought that students in the american conservative heartland are free enough to challenge the fossilised brain of their principal, brings tears of joy to my eyes and gladdens my heart. Yeah I know, I am extremely over-sensitive. It is my one fault (besides egomania)
- RR-WTF rated 13 months ago
- Democracy rules! Here is another little article about antidemocratic county - Iran - http://vote-for-stuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/pornography-in-iran.html
- TwistTim2006 rated 13 months ago
- reading the article I realized exactly why this play is banned.... not just because it's about the war, but because the soldiers are the heroes of it..... schools in an attempt to control children want to ban military, all talks of anything that is different, and force their own view point upon them...... mark my words... Stepford(This school is in the town The Stepford Wives was based on) there is just aiming to control the students to be their next generation commies.... and these students are revolting, VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!!!!
- jadedtales rated 13 months ago
- Here we have an article about a banned play in schools. Not so shocking to start with... but then you find the students are HIGHLY discouraged from even DISCUSSING the current war. Oh well then. As soon as I heard my child utter something like "I need a current events article NOT pertaining to the war" I do believe I'd start a wee battle of my own. This is helping our kids learn to deal with conflict and decipher politics and media message... how? We'd start with asking her father (who is currently serving) to bring as many of his coworkers as possible to school.... not talk about the damned war, indeed. Idiotic. If you ban one war, you better ban then all.
- shebillah rated 13 months ago
- From the page: "Jimmy Presson, 16 years old, said his U.S. history class has a weekly assignment to bring in a current-event news item, with one caveat: We are not allowed to talk about the war while discussing current events.The students said that they can discuss the war in a Middle Eastern studies class, but, they said, it is not being taught this year. Theater Arts II was the only class in the school where students were discussing the war, Dickinson said. Jimmy added, We also get to speak about it with the military recruiters who are always at school. Following Sundays production, Allan Buchman, Culture Projects artistic director, summed up, What we saw tonight was the reason to have a theater."
