Problems of underfunded and outdated schools.(1949)

HIGHLIGHTS SUCH PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION AS BUILDING CONSTRUCTION & MODERNIZATION, CLASS SIZE, MORE TEACHERS & UP-TO-DATE EDUCATIONAL TOOLS. PORTRAYS DANGERS OF PUBLIC COMPLACENCY TOWARD EDUCATION.




Ken Smith sez: This is a film about overcrowded schools -- a real problem in the opening years of the post-war baby boom. A zealous, melodramatic narrator ("I'm 'The People'," he explains) tells us that "good schools will help keep America free," and tries to convince us to spend more of our tax dollars on new and improved classroom facilities. A forum of five "average Americans" debate the merits of this issue; someone occasionally speaks from an empty sixth chair, but it's only "the voice of complacency," so it's safely ignored. Lots of footage of overcrowded elementary schools.
American flag waving in breeze; Capitol building; suburban homes; doctor examining child; boy scouts and scoutmaster raising flags; children climbing onto school bus; playgrounds; monkey bars; montage of Americans at work, play and churchgoing. an empty table in a school; mother bringing little boy to school. home building; tenements, lines of laundry hanging to dry
Many scenes of school overcrowding: cafeteria; school room; gym class; Various scenes of "modern" classrooms; home economics rooms; student laboratories;
Voiceovers:
"We cannot meet the complexities of modern life with outmoded school systems. We must keep our educational standards abreast of the swift-moving times in which we live if we hope to preserve our national heritage. Our American way of life."
anti-communism: "Foreign 'isms' are like germs. They can't attack a healthy body." "Freedom is subject to attack from the inside as well as out. It's hard to get people to sense danger, just as it's hard to get people out to vote." "Would you willingly go to a place day after day that depressed you? That made you feel unwelcome because there wasn't room for you? . . .Then we shouldn't expect our children to either." "Good schools will keep America free."

schools.(1949)