'won't back down' sounds like it might be more effective than 'superman'

Within the first few minutes, projected on the screen in large letters are the words, "Inspired By True Events.” That conveys the message that parents and teachers took over and ran a school somewhere in our nation. That never happened. I suppose that sells better than opening the film with, "This is Fictitious.”

Outstanding performances by star-studded and new young actors will put this movie on the Academy Award nomination list, I'm sure. The actors did a superb job of drawing you into the movie.

I cried several times despite knowing that this movie was funded by charter school privatizers seeking fistfuls of dwindling education dollars. I cried despite knowing that the story behind the “failing” school was not told.

Why was this mom and teacher's first step to conduct a takeover? Because it is fiction.

Yet I worry about the dynamic a movie like this creates. Will this movie launch open season by shrewd for-profit charter operators — including some with abysmal academic records — to stir a commotion and skip directly to the takeover step? Disgruntled parents and guardians will see this film that is supposedly "Inspired by True Events” (but those events are never mentioned or referenced) and think it's appropriate to storm the school board to demand a school takeover.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/wont-back-down-realities-the-movie-ignores/2012/08/20/390e52ea-eadf-11e1-b811-09036bcb182b_blog.html


the parent trigger -- it only works one way.