In internet time, Annie Leonard’s The Story Of Stuff is relatively old. But the 2007 web video, produced by Free Range Studios and funded by the Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption (among others) has attained cult status in American classrooms. According to the New York Times, teachers around the country use the video to supplement environmental education textbooks that often lack information on recent scientific discoveries.
Creative teaching, right? Not in Missoula County, Montana, where the school board responded to a parent’s complaint about the video’s “anti-capitalist” message with a decision that use of The Story of Stuff “violated its standards on bias.”
OK… Leonard does use the phrase “means of production” in the video. But, interestingly enough, the video has inspired discussion rather than stifling it: students from California’s Woodside Priory college prep school made a video asking for practical steps they could take to address issues raised in The Story of Stuff, and yet another group of high school students, from Mendocino High’s School of Natural Resources, responded with another video supplying ideas.
In fairness, Missoula County school board officials claim they have not banned the video; they just want alternative views presented along with it. Looks like high school kids with video cameras have already figured out how to make that work… and created their own little ecosystem of communication around this challenging short film.
Is The Story of Stuff a detailed presentation of complex concepts surrounding unsustainable production and consumption, or an anti-corporate screed? Is it appropriate for secondary students? Let us know in the comments…
via SmartBrief
May 12th, 2009 - 4:10 pm
Maybe Wal-Mart can make a video applauding materialism. Call it “The Story of Crap.”
Or maybe they can just let the kids watch 10 minutes of ordinary television for an alternate view. DUH.
Let’s say that Story of Stuff is an apple. Kids eat twinkies fast food oreos cheetos and coke all day long, and then they are offered an apple, and the school board wants to insist they have a donut along with it for balance???
May 12th, 2009 - 8:41 pm
Very educational. Kids should learn about consumerism and environment at schools.
May 13th, 2009 - 9:29 am
@The Beautiful Kind… very appropriate metaphor!
@Vesna… yep, I applaud the teachers using this video… it does a very nice job of making concepts like “externalities,” “life cycle,” and “consumption” very accessible…
May 13th, 2009 - 10:56 am
Interesting how the truth, when it threatens our big money-making institutions or our most fundamental societal beliefs, can inspire the kind of question asked here. It shows just how entrenched is our faith in economic growth and the consumerism necessary to feed it. Everyday there are hundreds of minutes of pro-growth, pro-consumerism chatter on the airwaves that do not seem to provoke this kind of question. Even our President drinks some of that Kool-Ade and offers some up to us. If Story of Stuff is anti-capitalist, perhaps that is exactly what we need – more independent thinking to question a status quo that may need to go!
Dave Gardner
Producer/Director
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity
http://www.growthbusters.com
May 13th, 2009 - 2:06 pm
[...] environment any favors, is no exception. A parent in Missoula County, Montana, complained about the video’s “anti-capitalist” message — prompting the school board to decide that The Story of Stuff “violated its standards on [...]
May 16th, 2009 - 12:57 pm
@Dave… thank you for your thoughts… ideas worth chewing on!
@Siel — appreciate the link!