Summary:
"America to Me" is a documentary series with 10 1-hour episodes that follows the daily lives of a few students who attend Oak Park, a high school in Illinois. The school has a problem with the achievement gap and equity and has multiple academic tracks (ex: honors, ap), making the school hold two realities, one that Black students experience and another that White students experience. The documentary follows a variety of students who are in different grades and who participate in different extracurriculars, and over its course, the audience gets to see the different problems that the students face and their different strengths as individuals. It also details school board meetings and interviews with the students' parents and teachers, allowing the audience to have greater insight into what is going on at the school and in the students' lives. By the end of the documentary, it feels clear that the school is doing little to nothing to help the achievement gap, but the viewer can learn a lot about the experiences of African American students and their both their challenges and strengths. About half-way through the series, the documentary also follows 2 White students and one Mixed student, which really helps to clarify the differences between the school's two realities. Additionally, although the school administration does not seem to be doing anything to help the achievement gap, the documentary does follow the efforts of a group of teachers at the school. A lot can be learned from their struggles against the school board and from seeing their teaching strategies from an outside perspective, all of which would really benefit a future teacher.
Who should watch it?
Anyone interested in teaching (especially if they attended a particularly monoracial school or would like to teach at a school that struggles with equity), anyone interested in the achievement gap, anyone interested in equity, and anyone looking to grow in empathy for students of color should watch this series.
Strengths of the series:
It's entertaining and by the end you feel like you've gotten to know the students. It also follows a wide enough variety of students, so there are not many lulls in the show.
Weaknesses of the series:
The series does not give any kind of commentary on what people say. It's nice that the content isn't filtered, but the audience has to do the thinking for themselves; however, there are online worksheets related to the series. Also, it does not conclude with a follow up on the students, the school, or the teachers, which definitely would've added to the series.
Overall:
I would definitely recommend "America to Me," it's a great series! I really enjoyed it, but it also made me think more seriously about various topics related to race, school, the achievement gap, equity, tracking, reparations, special ed, how students' home lives interact with their lives at school, and how teachers' biases can affect their teaching.
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