The War on Kids

Cevin Soling - 2009 - USA

"Education is war declared on the young." - Marshall McLuhan

As a follow-up to his equally inflammatory 2002 film The War on the War on Drugs, Cevin Soling tackles a much more upsetting subject in The War on Kids.  While the treatment is drastically more even-tempered and less sarcastic than in the Drugs film, Soling is nevertheless just as aggressive in backing up his thesis.  Momentary opposing views are given time, but they aren't necessary because the mainstream culture is already the opposing view.  The film is a numbing barrage of evidence showing how the institutional mentality - (mainly law enforcement-oriented) - has led to a situation in which students are treated as potential criminals, if not actual criminals, on the basis of fear more than evidence.  Soling suggests that this is merely a new outlet for the age-old horror of youth on the part of the adult world, and it thrives thanks to so-called "zero tolerance" policies and general media hysteria.  There are dozens of first-hand stories told about students being suspended, even jailed, for the most frivolous causes by spineless teachers and principals who are too worried for their jobs to behave with any common sense, let alone a concern for the kids involved.  Metal detectors, armed officers, security cameras, impotent anti-drug programs, endless Ritalin prescriptions and warrantless search-and-seizures are par for the course in many schools for the simple reason that minors don't have the same rights under the law that adults do.  One of the most damning examples, of course, remains Columbine, where operating security cameras failed either to prevent the shooting or to help rescue efforts during it; all they did was give news channels something to run day-in and day-out once everyone was dead.  Worst of all is the issue that you will never heard discussed in the mass media; the fact that many teachers are essentially bullies with a union-mentality and are primarily interested in alternately disciplining and brainwashing kids.  My personal favorite is the interview subject who claims that the educational and pharmaceutical industries basically colluded to cook up ADHD, the official definition of which is a comical laundry list of behaviors that annoy teachers.  My own memories of high school revolve around locked gates, security guards, dull and mind-numbing surroundings and curricula, utterly oblivious and befuddled staff, "scared-straight" presentations by cops and motivational speakers, and periodic, completely idiotic, prohibitions against baseball caps and red clothing because they were supposedly "gang related."  And this was 20 years ago; from what I hear things have only gotten worse since then, drastically in some areas.  Kids spend 8 hours a day being told that school is preparing them for the future.  What future?  Life in prison?
  
http://www.amazon.com/The-War-on-Kids/dp/B005O730CO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339976268&sr=8-1&keywords=the+war+on+kids