1. If I was a teacher, I would use this film to teach the class about racism within a school environment and within society today. This can be done by analyzing comments directed to the student with a Jewish background, and how he had to hide is religion from everyone else within his school, as Jews were frowned upon after the Holocaust by many Catholics. I would make sure to inform the class that color discrimination is not the only form of racism, as many people can be attacked based upon their religious views identifying them as an individual race. All of the negative comments presented can be beneficial, but the students may loose interest as this film was portrayed in an earlier time.
2. If a parent complained about the excessive amounts of racist terms used towards the Jewish race and the one scene including partial nudity, I would address to the parents that this can happen within a real life scenario and that students within a high school environment should be mature enough to view these scenarios, as they may experience similar accounts within their high school.
3. There are many limitations towards this particular form of media because it is somewhat outdated, as this was set right after the Holocaust. Messages may not be portrayed quickly. A pamphlet can be used to obtain more detailed information about the issue, or a remake of the film in a modren high school.
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Your perceptions are entirely off-base, most especially in the first point.
ReplyDeleteYou state that "Jews were frowned upon after the Holocaust by many Catholics" which is utterly nonsensical. This film was set in a 1950s Episcopalian/Protestant school, where Catholics like Irish or Italians would have been made equally unwelcome as Jews.
As for believing that Catholics had some sort of ill-will for Jews after the Holocaust, your belief could not be more mistaken. I strongly suggest you do some substantive reading on the subject, including on the Polish priest Fr Maximilian Kolbe, murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1941 and subsequently sainted by Pope John Paul II in 1982.