The War on Kids

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The stories are nearly unbelievable: a middle schooler suspended for bringing a Tweety Bird keychain to class (because all chains are classified as weapons); another, for pretending a fast-food chicken strip was a gun; a third, for carrying ibuprofen in violation of the school's strict policy against drugs - except, of course, for Ritalin. This documentary argues that measures intended to keep children safe have turned schools into prisons and that regimentation in the public educational system produces adults who are unable to think for themselves. Taking aim at "zero tolerance" rules, authoritarian teachers, the D.A.R.E. program and its devolution into a joke among kids, and more, the video posits that the mainstays of public education are worse than ineffectual, they may be downright harmful. With Henry Giroux (Stealing Innocence: Corporate Culture's War on Children), John Holt (Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Agenda of Compulsory Schooling) and Laurie Couture (Instead of Medicating and Punishing).