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Child Education (22)
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1, 2, 3, CocoPierre M. Trudeau 1991 3 minAn animated film for five- to eight-year-olds on children's right to receive an education. A teacher gives extra, individualized help to a student who is having difficulty with arithmetic and helps her find fun in numbers. -
AzzelGuy L. Coté 1979 28 minThis short documentary looks at Azzel, one of the Niger Department of National Education’s first schools for nomads. The film describes the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Tuareg and the changes brought about by these government-run boarding schools.
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Bing Bang BoomJoan Henson 1969 24 minThis short 1969 documentary follows acclaimed innovator and composer R. Murray Schafer as he visits a Grade 7 music classroom to teach students that all the sounds of life are a part of music. Schafer’s provocations help these curious learners discover music without instruments or painfully learned notes and scales. Schafer encourages the students to listen to every sound around them and then transform what they hear—voices, steps, breath—into music. The fun-filled result is a convincing illustration for educators: children learn best when it’s from the inside out.
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Dans la vie...Pierre Veilleux 1972 5 minHere the film animator gives vivid expression to his own memories of a child's first encounter with elementary school--at that tender age when grown-ups seem ten feet tall, a monster lurks in every corridor, and the very walls have eyes. Feeling, but not understanding, the regimentation imposed on him, the child seeks, in spite of it all, to be himself. A film without words; titles in French.
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Eye Witness No. 111949 11 minIn this installment of the Eye Witness series, we look at classrooms on rails, circa 1949. We visit Ontario forests north of Lake Superior, where children come from miles away to attend school in a school car. They receive a month's worth of homework at a time, to keep them busy until the next time the classroom comes around. In Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, we see a unique workshop that trains the physically-challenged as furniture makers and seamstresses, allowing them to earn a living and build self-reliance.
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Eye Witness No. 291950 9 minThis installment of the Eye Witness series focuses on Indigenous children at Fort Simpson; a miniature naval battle between radio-operated vessels attended by the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets in Montreal; a drive-in theatre near Ottawa used to provide church services to passing motorists; and how Toronto's subway system is starting to take shape.
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A Foreign LanguageStanley Jackson 1958 29 minThis short documentary focuses on a Montreal public school where thousands of immigrant children learn English for the first time. Part of the Candid Eye series.
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Hope BuildersFernand Dansereau 2010 1 h 29 minThis feature documentary zooms in on a Grade 6 class in Quebec where a teacher is implementing an experimental teaching method aimed at preparing children to take up environmental challenges. Over the course of a year, Dominique Leduc’s students will learn to identify, analyze and resolve a problem that exists in their world. They also learn about the uncertainty faced by those who want change.
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Higher Than Flames Will GoMonique LeBlanc 2020 1 h 43 minA true cinematic tour de force, this auteur essay film is an adaptation of Plus haut que les flames, Louise Dupré’s 2011 Governor General’s Award-winning book of poetry. A moving meditation on the vital importance of taking care of our children—a task that remains essential to humanity’s salvation.
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KindergartenGuy L. Coté 1962 21 minThis short documentary focuses on one day in a kindergarten classroom. We watch the teacher encouraging children to turn their curiosity into questions and organizing group activities and play periods. Filmed at Van Horne Public School in Montreal.
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Lessons in LivingBill MacDonald 1944 23 minThe community of Lantzville, British Columbia, is a cross-section of nationalities and industrial groups--farmers, fishermen, lumbermen and railroad workers. Its spirit and its public school were down at the heels, but both community and school were transformed. An adjoining barn was converted into a community hall for the parents, to serve at the same time as a school gymnasium and as a workshop for the farm mechanics class. With the improved building, the whole school program was broadened.
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Learning Peace: A Big School with a Big HeartTeresa MacInnes 2002 57 minLearning Peace: A Big School with a Big Heart chronicles a year at Annapolis East Elementary. A school where over 700 kids play, study, meet and--like kids everywhere--sometimes fight.
But thanks to an anti-violence program introduced in 1996 by principal Heather Harris, bullying and fighting have become a rarity.
Peace education has been fully integrated into the school curriculum. Meanwhile, a peer mediation program helps students settle disputes, good behaviour is rewarded at monthly assemblies, and a full-time counsellor devotes his days (lunch hours and breaks included) to helping kids address anger.
Over the course of a year, it becomes clear that peace is hard work--but well worth the effort. -
Mathematics at Your FingertipsJohn Howe 1961 27 minIn today's classrooms various new ways are being tried to put children more at ease with numbers. This film shows one such system developed by a Belgian schoolmaster, Georges Cuisenaire. He carefully designed sets of coloured sticks to help children grasp simple mathematical relationships. (Originally released under the title Numbers in Colour.)
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The New SchoolteacherJocelyn Rehder 1995 9 minThe New Schoolteacher describes the life of Ella, a young teacher in the 1850s. Not much older than the senior students in her charge, she is responsible for everything in the school from teaching all grades, all subjects, to discipline and housekeeping. It is a difficult job but Ella proves that she can do it and starts a baseball team too.
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No Apple for JohnnyJohn Weldon 1977 9 minThis animated short is the visual enactment of the year-long obstacle course run by a teacher trainee. Rich in humor and anecdote, it is a comedy of educational manners seen through the autobiographical and unflinching eye of the trainee-turned-filmmaker.
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The Nativity CycleFergus McDonell 1956 29 minThe Christmas story, presented in the form of a medieval York mystery, or miracle play, by a cast of junior school children. They follow the text, in verse and prose, used by strolling players five centuries ago when a miracle play meant the portrayal of the mystery of Christ's birth. The story is divided into scenes, with costumes and settings patterned after biblical times. Between acts a children's "angel choir" sings familiar Christmas carols to introduce each scene.
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Off to School1958 8 minThis short film from 1958 compiles 3 short reportages on different ways kids are schooled in remote areas. To School by Boat follows children of isolated fishing hamlets along a stretch of British Columbia coastline as they travel to school by sea-going bus. In Classroom on Rails, we hop along a railway coach that brings school to children in a logging area of northern Ontario. Northern Schooldays introduces us to First Nations children educated in a residential school in Moose Factory.
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SummerhillDennis Miller 1966 27 minA visit to a school without fixed rules, where students study as they wish, and are their own masters. A co-educational English boarding school, Summerhill was founded by Alexander Neill a half-century ago. In the film he explains his objectives, and from the activities of the children at work and play can be seen how his methods work. School, he says, should put preparation for life ahead of learning.
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Sir! Sir!Michael Rubbo 1968 20 minHere is what happened in a Toronto classroom when teachers occupied the children's desks and children became the teachers. The film grew out of another, Mrs. Ryan's Drama Class, where young children found their way into creative drama. There is food for thought in this impromptu reversal of roles.
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A Search for LearningDonald Shebib 1967 12 minA film for teachers, describing the use of the "discovery method" in teaching. All it needs is a teacher whose encouragement is natural and unobtrusive. The film shows a free environment where even the furniture can be arranged to meet the needs of a particular enquiry. Film loops and other visual media are shown being used to advantage in this method of teaching.
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Tomorrow's CitizensGordon Weisenborn 1947 11 minThis film examines contemporary educational methods and policies in the light of an age that has released new natural energies, to be used for or against mankind. It reiterates the question sociologists ask: is the development of social responsibility in today's children keeping pace with their technical knowledge?
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Wandering Spirit Survival SchoolMarvin Midwicki , Les Holdway , … 1978 27 minThis school, organized by concerned parents, broke with tradition by introducing subjects that are of particular relevance to its pupils. Traditional Indigenous stories, traditions, languages and crafts balance the program of academic subjects required by the Ontario Ministry of Education. The experience of the children at Wandering Spirit is contrasted with the very different life experienced by their parents, educated in the old residential schools.
