What We’re Watching Dim the lights and get ready to learn with these TT-approved films! A Place in the Middle: The True Meaning of of the Selma movement. They confronted a rather than individuals with families, hopes, Aloha, a documentary short by Dean Hamer violent sheri" and a defiant governor deter- fears and dreams.” (90 min.) and Joe Wilson, tells the story of a school mined to protect white supremacy at any documentedthefilm.com in Honolulu, Hawaii, that is demonstrat- cost. By organizing and marching bravely HIGH SCHOOL ing respect for and inclusion of gender-fluid in the face of intimidation, violence, arrest A curriculum guide based on the film is avail- students. The film centers on 11-year-old and even murder, these activists helped to able with purchase. The guide is mapped to Ho’onani, who embodies māhū, a Hawaiian achieve one of the most significant victories the Teaching Tolerance Anti-bias Framework. term that refers to people who embrace of the civil rights era—passage of the Voting feminine and masculine spirits. Ho’onani Rights Act of 1965. The film kit is free and Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly’s doc- occupies “a place in the middle” on the gen- includes a viewer’s guide and poster that umentary The Homestretch opens with der spectrum and leads her school’s hula reflect essential practices for teaching the the voices of youth experiencing home- troupe, typically for boys only. Ho’onani’s civil rights movement. (40 min.) lessness in Chicago. “It puts you in a pre- teacher Kumu Hina—a transgender tolerance.org/selma-bridge-to-ballot dicament where you gotta grow up real, woman—tells the troupe, “I want every stu- MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL real fast,” says one young person. “Is this dent to know that if you are my student, you like the life I’m going to live for the rest of have a place to be—in the middle.” A Place Documented, a film by Pulitzer Prize- my life?” asks another. The Homestretch in the Middle documents some of the posi- winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, amplifies the voices and experiences of tive outcomes that can occur when schools captures Vargas’ experience as an undoc- three homeless youth: Kasey, Anthony welcome students with love, harmony and umented immigrant in the United States. and Roque. The film makes visible what respect (the deeper meaning of aloha). The Vargas left the Philippines at age 12 to live is often an invisible population in schools film also makes the point that this welcome with his grandparents in California. At 16, and communities. It also dispels pervasive should not be extended despite students’ he found out that he was undocumented stereotypes by showing that homeless- gender identity or expression, but precisely when he tried to apply for a driver’s permit. ness is a situation, not a character flaw. because of who they are. (25 min.)* Years later, finding his own silence unbear- Of particular relevance, The Homestretch aplaceinthemiddle.org able and driven to influence immigration portrays the crucial roles that homeless MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL reform, Vargas returned to his high school’s liaisons, educators, administrators, coun- *Clips from A Place in the Middle can be journalism class and told students, “So I’m selors and other staff play in the lives of found in Teaching Tolerance’s literacy-based, actually an undocumented immigrant.” He homeless youth in the public school sys- anti-bias curriculum, Perspectives for a also told them that he was about to come tem. But the systematic issues at the Diverse America. out nationally as undocumented, which heart of youth homelessness extend far he did—in The New York Times Magazine. beyond school walls—a fact that compels Teaching Tolerance’s new film, Selma: The Documented captures all of these moments, some school staff to become advocates Bridge to the Ballot, tells the story of the and others. The message is loud and clear: for change. (90 min.) historic struggle for voting rights through Too often, undocumented immigrants are homestretchdoc.com the voices of the Alabama high school stu- treated as, in Vargas’ words, “abstractions, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT dents and teachers who were the backbone faceless and nameless, subjects of debate PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE SCHAPIRO/CORBIS SUMMER !"#$%!".
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