The Silver Screen

Life on the Screen

In this interview, George Lucas outlined his beliefs that our educational system should be teaching students how to properly utilize all forms of communication. He feels that it is currently stuck in the nineteenth century, merely focusing on the written and spoken word, while failing to give any sort of emphasis to visual, and other nonverbal forms of, communication. Lucas also points out that there is a great communication circle: one part, math, is completely unemotional, whereas its opposite, music, is nothing but emotional; in between these two parts lie all other forms of communication.

Lucas says that it is vitally important to teach students how to understand visual communication because that's what they are bombarded with day after day: "Students understand that they need to have these skills in order to exist in this world, so they're way ahead of us. Most kids relate to each other through music or graphics. They are regularly bombarded with images and sound. Most of their awareness comes through the language of moving images and cinema. That's why it's so important that they learn the language of it." He also points out that there are a number of highly educated professionals who have no clue how to put together a good visual presentation, with the result being a very convoluted lecture in deed.

According to Lucas, teaching emotional knowledge is just as important as teaching intellectual knowledge in the schools: "All these forms of communication are extremely important, and they should be treated that way. Unfortunately, we've moved away from teaching the emotional forms of communication. But if you want to get along in this world, you need to have a heightened sense of emotional intelligence, which is the equal of your intellectual intelligence. One of my concerns is that we're advancing intellectually very fast, but we're not advancing emotionally as quickly."

Personally, I'm not so sure I agree with everything Lucas said. After telling his interviewer that our educational system is bound up in nineteenth century ideas and methods, the interviewer then asks what he would change. In his answer, Lucas states: "we . . . need to understand the importance of graphics, music, and cinema, which are just as powerful and in some ways more deeply intertwined with young people's culture." I agree with these things being just as powerful as the written and spoken word. However, this is not a new phenomenon. People in the nineteenth century understood the power and importance of graphics, music and cinema. They did not have TV, movies or iPods to entertain themselves with. Not everyone could read. Graphics, music and cinema were vital to their world and they knew it. For someone who was illiterate, having a graphic on a sign outside of a business identifying what the business offered (i.e., a saddle for a business that made and sold horse-related items) was most necessary. I don't think Lucas realized all of this when he made his statement. Depending on their wealth, some were taught these appreciations through education, others, just given the monotony of their daily lives, understood the power of these forms of entertainment.

Lucas also made this statement: "We have to ask, What is important for the kids to learn? The old idea of education as a way of storing facts is not that significant because nobody can store the number of facts there are. Every year it seems to double. Instead we need to teach students how to tell a story. It's not enough to learn geometry; you have to learn how to build a house. We need to treat the language and grammar of the screen exactly the way we learn writing or music or painting." I both agree and disagree with parts of this quote. First, I think education should be treated as more than just a way to store facts. I also like how he takes it further by saying that learning geometry is not just enough: you have to learn how to build a house, too. I like this because having an education is a good thing, but one needs to apply that education to life. Otherwise, it is useless. However, I don't understand what he means by "we need to teach students how to tell a story." Is he saying that education should completely shift its focus to storytelling? Sometimes, you do just need to "learn the facts." If we had a country full of people who knew how to tell a story, but could do nothing else, we wouldn't have a country and I daresay that the mantra of the day would be "Teach them the facts!"

I did like his point that a country survives on its educational system, especially his statement of "The society that has a great educational system becomes the prominent society because that's the way the human race survives." It is unfortunate that so many seem to not get this bigger picture.

One final thing that I cannot leave unturned: I did not appreciate his shameless jab at the military. How would he feel if we were under attack and all of his freedoms and visual communications were threatened? Should the military really “bring [us] zippo,” would he be content with this? Or, better yet, if we didn’t have a military in this country at all, would he truly be glad of that fact? It would save us a lot of money.

Digital Directors Guild
This site explains the importance of digital moviemaking in the classroom. It shows how such activity can help students of all ages learn in a fun and effective way, while being able to validate and express how they feel about certain topics. The site also gives advice for how to incorporate this form of education into the classroom.

Podcasts
This site does much the same as the Digital Directors Guild site. It explains what a podcast is and how to access them (something that I was unsure of until I read through it--I know, I'm completely out of touch with digital reality . . . ), as well as gives reasons of why it is an important educational tool. I liked the podcast examples, especially the one of students explaining their hometown of Bristol, England.

What value do these add to education in general?
I think the value of these things lies in the fact that this is the stuff kids are interested in today and by incorporating items that hold preexisting interest into the classroom, kids will be apt to participate at a deeper level.

What value could they add to my classroom?
In the social studies classroom, digital moviemaking and podcasts have the potential to "make history come alive" for my students. They could see and hear things from the past. Such interaction with the past always makes it more interesting that just bookwork.

What types of learning are these best suited to?
Clearly audio and visual learning, as well as Kinaesthetic (hands-on). Although, the latter might facilitate a greater learning of how to make a digital movie or podcast, rather than subject matter.

What types of students will most likely benefit?
Those who learn best by the ways listed above. Also, students who are outgoing will probably benefit more than those who are shy. I was a shy student in grade school and I would have felt completely overwhelmed and intimidated by an assignment of this sort.