Posted in DemEd in Real Life on Dec 03, 2009 - 03:13 AM
I recently watched the Colbert Report, a satirical program. It is styled as a talk show, with the host pretending to be a heavy handed, superstitious, elitist right wing republican in order to make fun of that demographic. He also opportunistically satirizes just about anyone else who makes illogical mistakes in the political world.One of the consistent parts of his program is that he will bring people on to interview. In a recent episode, he interviewed a man named Cevin Soling, who is a filmmaker and writer who recently wrote the book and directed a movie called ''The War on Kids.'' In these respective works, Cevin Soling denounces schools as being prison-like, claims that schools are out of line with our (the American government's/populace's) goal of having participants in a democratic process, and says that it strips away the ability of people to act of their own and accomplish great things.
Cevin Soling's website is barely a skeleton, but can be found here: http://thewaronkidspresskit.blogspot.com/2009/09/cevin-soling-offers-no-hope-for.html
Here's the clip of Colbert's interview with Soling:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Cevin Soling | ||||
| ||||
I was personally unimpressed with Cevin's ability to present what he was talking about. He seemed unfocused and broad, and Cevin let Stephen walk all over him, which Stephen won't usually do if the guest is talking about something interesting and substantive. My personal opinion is that Stephen sensed that Cevin's ambiguity would make it less interesting to viewers and thus decided to try and emphasize the comedic aspect of the discussion.
Still? I think it's a huge event of note that someone like that showed up on any kind of major broadcasted network, especially Comedy Central, and especially the Colbert Nation. The Colbert Nation is the morass of people who routinely watch Stephen, and Stephen has had some immense success directing these people to do various things, like have animals, bridges, teams, and spacecraft paraphernalia named after him.I think that's a huge audience that alternative education potentially could have reached.
I thought I'd give this head up for your reading satisfaction. I encourage you watch the episode if you have never seen Colbert before.
Tags for this entry:
media,
video,
stephen colbert,
film,
cevin soling,
war on kids,
mandatory schooling
comments
p.s.
I found this interview with Soling that I think you’d like- he presents as quite well-spoken, and I think you’d appreciate what he has to say:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat244.shtml
on Dec 03, 2009 - 09:02 PM
Thanks for writing on the Soling interview. When I saw it, I had the same thought—how awesome it is for Dem-Ed ideals to get into the mainstream media and reach new audiences. Yet another example of democratic education in action, though it doesn’t bear that name, and Soling may not ever use the term in the film.
I was actually impressed at how well Soling explained basic democratic education ideals to the mainstream. He hit on points that resonate with most people, like how traditional school is boring and controlling, and antithetical to true democracy (meaningful engagement and decision-making).
Soling could have pushed back a little on Colbert to get his message across, but to me he sounded matter-of-fact and credible. I ordered the DVD and will report back on it.
on Dec 04, 2009 - 11:59 AM
I agree with the other people who commented in that I also thought Soling did a very good job of presenting himself and the issues. I know my friends all felt the same way too and were very excited and impressed with Colbert for interviewing him. Perhaps you should watch the interview again? As good as the interview was, the film, The War on Kids, is dramatically better. It is powerful, disturbing and well documented.
By the way, the link you have for the film site is wrong and not run by Soling. The correct site is http://www.thewaronkids.com. Soling also has a personal website, but that is kind of out there and entertaining, yet worth checking out too.
on Jan 02, 2010 - 06:36 PM
I appreciate his points and efforts and understand why there is some effort to approach the topic with some caution… in some ways to say that school is prisonlike is to say that everything we know about how to live and what to value is wrong. Maybe you’ve confronted the idea of school this way from so long that it is not shocking or radical to you to hear someone of authority say that school is a prison designed to prepare kids for factories… but for much of the US, that’s a really radical idea!
I don’t know that it was any lack of presentation skill by Soling, since Colbert is great at making anyone look silly… all while exposing us to a serious idea. Maybe this will turn some folks on to the documentary or book and broaden their POV a little, and yay for that possibility! 
Glad you shared it here too!
on Dec 03, 2009 - 08:48 PM