The Responsibility Project asked me to check out their latest film, Growing Up. It features four beautiful kids aged 5 – 20 talking about growing up and being responsible in a perfectly natural way. It’s a lovely film. But are the kids responsible or are they exceptional? The two older kids seemed more like exceptional young adults to me. In particular, it was not necessarily “responsible” for 20-year-old Jenna to put her acting and singing career on hold to work with kids with disabilities, but it may be considered an example of exceptional choosing. To say that it is responsible implies that Jenna would be “irresponsible” for choosing a singing and acting career, something that clearly isn’t the case.
Liberty Mutual has made several other fictional–and quirkier–films, each one asking a question about some aspect of responsibility. This is the first time they decided to make a documentary.
But here’s the deal: as a teaching tool, Growing Up is less successful than the other films. The problem with depicting four wonderful kids is that doesn’t teach anything; it just announces something. The kids watching the film will just sit there and think, “I’m not that kid.” Better to start with grey or negative situations that get kids talking–or even advising–because it’s less initimidating to measure yourself against a situation in which everyone is not behaving perfectly. This would also be a way for kids to actively engage in thinking about the idea of responsibility instead of having the idea presented to them, something modern pedagogy no longer supports.
Just my 2 cents.
Filed under: Responsibility Project, kids , Growing Up, idea, kids, Responsibility Project, teach, teaching tool
