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The first documentary in the collection plots the course of the river, from its source to its delta. In a succession of spectacular images we see the extraordinary geographical route that the Mekong takes, from the Tibetan plateau, down the mountains of the Yunnan Province in China, then through the tropical valleys and virgin forests of Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand before reaching the green plains of Vietnam. In the tropical forest, nature...
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Use this ABC News program to explore links between a wide range of educational issues: school safety, overcrowding, privatization, and poor academic performance. The video takes viewers inside Chester High, a Pennsylvania school racked with security, staffing, and financial problems; in fact, Chester's difficulties are so great that the company hired to run the school has pulled out. With commentary from many sectors of the community-including students,...
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Plato's academy was the first formal arena for education, where young men were tutored in the rigors of logic, philosophy, and mathematics. Prior to this, societies transmitted knowledge from one generation to the next orally, and after the advent of writing, through texts. Although education throughout history has been predominantly a privilege of the elite, universal education is currently seen as a basic right, necessary for a country's prosperity....
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In 1983, the Reagan Administration's report, A Nation at Risk, shattered public confidence in America's school system and sparked a new wave of education reform. This program explores the impact of the "free market" experiments that ensued, from vouchers and charter schools to privatization-all with the goal of meeting tough new academic standards. Today, the debate rages on: do these diverse strategies challenge the founding fathers' notions of a...
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This program with Bill Moyers compares the everyday experiences of two New York City middle school students and contrasts political rhetoric with the reality of American schooling. A profile of the two students and their different schools points out the inequalities of our current system and how disproportionate funding affects the quality of education. The program also features advocates for educational reform, who debate what the Democratic and...
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Amidst a gloomy climate of failing schools and the stringent No Child Left Behind legislation, some communities have created a small revolution, achieving gains with children others had given up on - with implications for schools nationwide. In this penetrating documentary, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith travels from inner city to rural town to observe how some districts and reform models are making a difference: the Success for All...
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In 1900, 6% of America's children graduated from high school; by 1945, 51% graduated and 40% went on to college. This program recalls how massive immigration, child labor laws, and the explosive growth of cities fueled school attendance and transformed public education. Also explored are the impact of John Dewey's progressive ideas as well as the effects on students of controversial IQ tests, the "life adjustment" curriculum, and Cold War politics....
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This program is geared to students just starting out in Sociology and sets out to make the subject more accessible by illustrating what's meant by a sociological problem, culture, socialization and identity. It looks at how societies not only shape how we behave but also how we see the world and takes apart the age old accusation that sociology is just 'common sense.'
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In the aftermath of the Revolution, a newly independent America confronted one of its most daunting challenges: how to build a united nation out of thirteen disparate colonies. This program profiles the passionate crusade launched by Thomas Jefferson and continued by Noah Webster, Horace Mann, and others to create a common system of tax-supported schools that would mix people of different backgrounds and reinforce the bonds of democracy. A wealth...
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In a society that is so economically, racially, and culturally diverse, how hard should people pursue individual and group rights? Does humanity's modern obsession with rights create a self-obsessed world preoccupied by victimhood? Archbishop Rowan Williams thinks so, and worries that rights groups become static whenever civil liberties are obtained. Filmed at Lambeth Palace, this multifaceted program examines the conflicting ideals between group...
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A follow up to Democracy Left Behind: NCLB and Civic Education (item 39484), this program looks at community-based learning in K-12 education. The film explores a wide variety of educational settings in which action-oriented lessons enable students to work outside the classroom, in their own communities. While taking nothing away from the importance of traditional academic subjects, the film promotes the idea that math, reading, and other areas are...
13) Seeking Haven
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Young-Soon, 23 years old, is a North Korean girl now living in the south. In 2007, she and her sister Mihee lived in hiding in China. While Young-Soon managed to escape to South Korea, her sister was arrested by the Chinese authorities and repatriated to North Korea. Ever since, Young-Soon has been determined to arrange her sister's escape.
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As is the case for an estimated 20,000 defectors who have built or are trying to build new lives in the South, Songgook is attempting to secure his entire family's freedom by arranging their defection. This phenomenon has been coined the "chain of escapes." His plan is a dangerous one; make a night time trek to the Tumen River, a border zone between China and North Korea and illegally smuggle his family out of China by boat into the international...
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In order to generate sufficient means for his wife left behind in North Korea to survive, Han accepts a job as a lumberjack in a camp situated in Siberia. The North Korean government, in ruthless deals with Russian entrepreneurs, offers willing citizens the opportunity to "work" in labor camps abroad. The wages are directly paid to the government who promise to pass the money on to the families left behind. When Han finds out that none of his wages...
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For more than 50 years, Americans have debated the policy of affirmative action. Defenders argue that it promotes diversity in education and the workplace, provides opportunity for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and helps account for generations of discrimination against certain historically oppressed or marginalized groups. Critics, however, argue that it promotes "reverse" discrimination based on race or ethnicity, treats Americans...
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This program explores the evolution of social classes from immigrant roots into the six social classes prevalent today. It discusses historical class stratification determinants of wealth, occupation, education, and prestige and presents modern paradigms of the new rich which accelerate social mobility. The program also considers social inequality due to geography, poverty, and lack of opportunity; intergenerational mobility; the government’s effect...