The Story of Stuff
Annie Leonard, Website, May 13, 2009.

This is a fabulous video that provides an overview of our consumption-driven wasteful economy and describes it (accurately) as a system in crisis. As the NY Times says, "it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution."

Of course, the coverage is keen to represent the other side of the story. "A school board in Missoula County, Mont., decided that screening the video treaded on academic freedom after a parent complained that its message was anticapitalist." This is a fascinating ruling, given that it is not likely that a capitalist message anywhere has been judged to tread on academic freedom on grounds that it ignores anticapitalism.

From my perspective, this video, though simplistic (as is necessary when describing a global system in 20 minutes) is essential viewing. It is an essentially accurate representation of the problem we face as a global society. And it represents one of the key ways in which technology in the classroom can have a beneficial and sustaining effect on society as a whole. I've posted a summary of the video on my Half an Hour blog. (Hits Today: 2 Total: 916) [Direct Link] [Tags: Schools, Video, Web Logs, Academia]

Share |

Comments

Re: The Story of Stuff

Anymouse, May 20, 2009

The definitive critique to the Story of Stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uJgG05xUY [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Comment



Title
Your comment:
Enter email to receive replies:

Your comments always remain your property, but in posting them here you agree to license under the same terms as this site (CC By-NC-SA). If your comment is offensive it will be deleted.

Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to make sure it makes sense.