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Following on from my last post about creating your own educational philosophy, I’m going to share with you some films to help inspire you to think about education, and what education you want in particular for your child.

These films are not intended to provide a model for your child’s education – rather just to get you thinking about what’s important to you with regards to your child’s schooling…

Etre et Avoir

– A beautiful wee documentary film set in a small rural French school that consists of just one composite class.  The film follows the class teacher’s final year leading up to retirement – cannot recommend highly enough

Dead Poets’ Society

– Could you have a list of films such as this one without Dead Poets’ Society?  So many aspects of education touched upon, and Robin Williams is just amazing.

Pay It Forward

– What I loved about this film is that it focuses on a classroom project, which one child takes beyond the school grounds to generate a positive affect on a much larger scale.

Horton Hears A Who

– Because a person’s a person no matter how small!  And also because sometime the invisible things in life are the most valuable.

Mona Lisa Smile

– Great period film set in a women’s college which raises issues of gender descrimination; however, what I’ll always remember it for is when Julie Roberts introduces her class to Jackson Pollock.

Bridge to Terabithia

– Altruism, empathy, imagination, friendship – such an incredibly powerful film that covers some very deep issues in a way that connects with the child in all of us.

Finding Neverland

– For me, free play is one of the cornerstones in my educational philosophy, and J. M. Barrie’s relationship with this little family really explores the importance of play.

School of Rock

– A bit of a fun one – Jack Black always makes me laugh!  However, at the heart of this movie are a few really key concepts behind education – doing what you love, collaboration, and allowing children autonomy.

Whale Rider

– Still one of my very favourite films!  Pai is a little girl marginalised within her community who ends up becoming a tribal leader. Gorgeous!

Take The Lead

– Saw this just recently, but thought that it raises some interesting issues surrounding male/female relationships, respect, practice, determination and a demonstration of faith in children’s abilities.

OK, so that’s my list – what film(s) would you recommend?

A Request For Your Participation…

Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be sharing some inspirational resources to help you construct your own educational philosophy which, like your approach, will be unique to you and your family. These resources have been selected to get you to start thinking about some of the following questions…

• What do you feel is wrong with the education systems you are currently familiar with?
• What do you want for your children in terms of their educational experience?
• What do you consider to be a well-rounded education?
• What do you believe the purpose of education is?
• How do you feel about your own education?  What was good? What could have been better?
• If you were the education minister of your country, what policies would you set?

Each of the posts in this series will offer 10 quotes or links or video clips etc. to kickstart your thinking on education and your core values/beliefs regarding what you want for your child.

What we want you to do is share your favourite educational resources in response to the individual series post topics. Why? Because we’re going to create our first Location Independent Parent’s crowd-sourced book!!

The plan is to collate all of your responses along with our own recommendations into a document, which will then be made available for sale with all profits going to Save the Children to aid in their international efforts to improve the lives of children everywhere. Exciting, hey?