Indeed. I have seen We Were Soldiers, the Patriot and parts of Saving Private Ryan. They are nice tributes to Americans who exhibited valor when forced to go to war but I would call them more inspirational than eductional. Spending class time on them is better than watching an Al Gore or Michael Moore movie, but that is not much of an endorsement.
Kids need to read about history, in history book that are as accurate as possible. Not watch history via a movie produced and written by some screen writer that lives in Reseda or North Hollywood.