Posted on 06/23/2007 4:01:45 AM PDT by lowbridge
PEEKSKILL, N.Y. (AP) - He doesn't want to be an ogre about it, but the father of a fifth-grader thinks teachers are wasting time when they show movies in class - and if the film is a bootleg, he says, ''That's a really terrible lesson.''
Tim Trewhella, 46, said his 10-year-old daughter reported that her class watched the animated movie ''Shrek the Third'' on Tuesday and recognized it as the fairy-tale hit still showing in theaters.
''A friend hooked me up with it,'' teacher Lovell Quiroz said, according to the girl.
Peekskill schools Superintendent Judith Johnson issued a statement saying administrative approval is required before a video is shown in elementary school and ''if a pirated video was shown it is in violation of district policy.'' An investigation was under way, the statement said.
An attempt to meet with Quiroz at the school was foiled by a security guard who ordered a reporter off school property.
The Motion Picture Association of America says major American movie studios lost $6.1 billion to piracy in 2005, 20 percent of that in the U.S.
''I don't want to see the guy hung for this,'' Trewhella said. ''I would just like him to apologize.''
Trewhella also says that what really bothers him is how often teachers show non-educational videos in class, bootleg or not.
''I run a candy and toy store,'' said Trewhella. ''I completely understand about entertaining kids. But it has its time and place.''
He said going public ''might be making this unpleasant for the school district. But as a taxpayer and a parent, I don't want my dollars going for movies. It's the teacher's job to make the educational stuff interesting.''
On the other hand, I teach my kids to question what the govt tells them, to be wary of the dangers that lay ahead.
You teach your kids to question Title 17 of the copyright law?
Yes, as part of a package deal.
So, your kid questions copyright law. What kind of answers does he or she come up with? That it’s evil?
Note: intellectual property is one of the few areas in which the U.S. economy is booming on an international scale. If that falls apart, like our manufacturing base, then we’re in pretty bad trouble.
I teach my kids that the govt is ass backwards, that Govt says that making copies is stealing and punishable, but that murdering babies is just fine.
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No such animal as an eductional exemption to copyright laws.
Bootlegging music and film is theft. Any attempt to rationalize it is moral relativism. And, those AV films you saw in HS were paid for by the School District.
This parent did the right thing by exposing the 'lesson' that small theft is acceptable.
and...
'As a parent I appreciate a Teacher who bends the rules a bit and thumbs his nose at the govt and big industries, that the little guys can have independence here and there, that we need not be sheep.'
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Bootlegging is theft. Do you involuntarily work for free? Do you expect to get paid for what you do or create? Do you invest any money and then feel ok about it when part of your return is stolen?
Just so you get the message....bootlegging is theft.
Just so you get the message, phhhhttt.
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If legal abortion is the yardstick then why stop at teaching them that some laws are ok to break, that some things are ok to steal? Why not tell them that shop-lifting is just sticking it to the man? That burglary is just the little guy expressing rebellion? That running out on a bar tab is just fine....
You're a dunce.
Save your money, with the lessons about morality that you are teaching your kids you’ll need it one day for bail.
Say what?
You approve of the school's stealing in order to keep costs down?
We are still (at least for a little bit longer) a nation of Laws. The teacher demonstrated to these kids that theft is acceptable.
A few years ago I read an article about teenagers who were amazed that someone might see boot legged music as theft. They also failed to understand that if the “Artist” (and I use that term loosely) doesn’t earn profits on their product they are unlikely to produce any more product.
Yes there is, it's called fair use and is well supported by court decisions and precedent.
Hmmm.....sounds like they've got extra time to me.
If this was an end-of-year treat and their classroom was cleaned out and ready for summer, why not let them watch a movie? Am I the only one who doesn’t care?
Your image does look a little Baal-istic. I think that shirt is supposed to say “Sin [crossbones] Kills”? Sin is disobedience to the revealed will of God. You can’t just take a scissors and cut Romans 13 out of the bible. Obey the authorities, up to the point that it would require disobedience to God — then obey God rather than man.
Happy Feet as an educational movie? Well, I guess it is good preparation for An Inconvenient Truth.
They absolutely have enough time.
I’d bet that my high school student spends the majority of her school day NOT being taught.
It is pathetic.
Copying can be wrong in its own way, but it is not the same definition as stealing.
No. Copying is not stealing. Until you make that copy and give it to your friend.
It makes me sad that we are now okay with listing our shouldn't do's as to their highest priority; rather than putting them all in one category.
Exactly. The message that teacher taught was so wrong.
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