I’ve previously posted about it but it wasn’t until I was about twenty years out of high school (mid 80s grad) that I came to appreciate my flyover public school teachers. There are several people and events that left lasting impacts:
One had been 20 when he liberated a Nazi camp. He brought in a couple dozen black and white 8x10s they used for documentation. His testimony and the photos made it real to us- and he pleaded with us to always remember and be vigilant.
In honors world literature seminar, we had a Russian segment where we read “The Gulag Archipelago” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” It was dreary and difficult and everyone really kind of hated it but our teacher was passionate about it.
Our civics teacher had us watch “The Day After” but also arranged a theater screening of “The Killing Fields” after Dith Pran had an impromptu assembly at our school. Pran had given a talk at a college the previous night. Our teacher met him there and convinced him to come to our class. I think our teacher bought a couple dozen of the books as he offered us extra credit if we read/reported on them as well.
Our American history teacher brought in a Viet Nam veteran to talk about his experience and put some perspective on the fall of Saigon on its ten year anniversary. A couple of years later (when my brother was in her class) she brought in a veteran of ‘the Root’ who talked about the Beirut bombing.
Of course, it wasn’t all great: The band director was a barely functioning alcoholic, a coach was dating a cheerleader, an administrator’s kid smoked a lot of pot, we lost a couple of kids too soon, and the librarian was often sound asleep…
I too read “One Day in the Live of Ivan Denisovich” and can recommend it to everyone.
I heard of the movie “The Killing Fields.” For a long time, I avoided it as I thought it would just be too depressing. Then I thought it was the rare anti-communist movie and that I should watch it. I watched it and concluded that my pre-conceptions were wrong. It was neither so depressing, nor so anti-communist.
It seemed like an odd film to me, with a foreground and a background. Anti-communist elements are there, but in the background. Sam Waterston is in the protagonist and therefore is in the foreground. We see and hear him speaking.
For example, he states that so and so says that if the communists win, the streets will flow red with blood. We don’t get to see the person saying those words, so they are in the background. Waterston, foreground, responds “but who can blame them?”
Can you imagine a Hollywood film that indirectly warns of violence if the Nazis come to power, but then says directly, “but who can blame them?”
There have been two anti-communist films recently. I wouldn’t categorize either as a Hollywood production. “Mr. Jones” is very good and I recommend it highly.
“Katyn” is about the Katyn forest massacre of Polish military officers. Covering the prelude to the event, the event, and the aftermath, it has a lot of content for one film
Mr. Jones may cover the murders somewhat lightly, so we can watch it. Katyn provides more dismal material. As such it is truer to the truth, but harder to watch.