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Steve Bernstein (far right) of Compassionate Connections shows The Witness to middle school students as part of a humane education workshop. Photo by Jeanine Taylor.
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Resources
See our subject-specific Teaching Guides as well as our Step-by-Step Guide to holding a screening which offers hints and tips useful to both classroom teachers and those holding screenings for the public. Also visit our Downloadable Resources page for additional materials that can support your efforts to show Tribe of Heart films in the class room.
"I encourage all teachers to watch this film and share it with their students. Together, you have the power and the wherewithal to bring about a new vision for change that can result in a new compassion and concern for all of life."
Yale Wishnik, PhD
California Teachers Association
"I highly recommend the use of The Witness in secondary school classrooms. It can be used as a tool to increase knowledge and broaden understanding of the full spectrum of human attitudes and subsequent behaviors exhibited toward animals."
Sheila Schwartz, Ed.D
United Federation of Teachers
Students Can Be Teachers, Too
Last Fall, a high school senior organized a lunchtime screening for her fellow students and teachers at her school.
A teacher who attended had this to say: "The emotional energy of this video pulls my intellectual awareness of the issues into a different domain -- from the head to the heart. Moving, informative, inspiring. A great illustration of personal transformation and the power of one individual to act to influence others."
A 15-year-old student remarked, "I always thought that people who worked for this cause were just being over sensitive. Now I can see that animal cruelty is REALLY a problem. I think that, like me, others will learn a lot from this video."
"This was my second viewing," the student who organized the screening said afterwards, "and though it was not as absolutely dumbfounding as the first, I was again moved to an extreme. Knowing those around me are feeling what I felt brings me some form of comfort -- they too have experienced this video. I will continue to try and get it out to as many people as I can." |
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Our own screening experiences at colleges, and the many classroom screenings held by humane educators, secondary school teachers, college professors, and community activists have consistently demonstrated that students find viewing Tribe of Heart documentaries to be an inspiring, thought-provoking experience.
On written surveys administered after one college screening, 42 out of 44 students indicated that they considered viewing the film a worthwhile experience, and 41 out of 44 said that they would recommend viewing it to others. Even more exciting were the students’ written comments, which reflected the intense level at which they were engaging the issues and their willingness to critically examine not only our society, but also their own values and behaviors.
Many teachers have commented on the ability of Tribe of Heart documentaries to reach students from all manner of backgrounds who had heretofore seemed indifferent to discussions about injustice and violence in our society. Notably, The Witness has been successfully screened at some of our nation's finest univeristies as well as a number of schools that specialize in children who are emotionally challenged and prone to violence.
Professors in a wide variety of disciplines are using our films in their classes at institutions such as:
- American University
- Birmingham-Southern College
- Boston University
- Burlington College
- Butler University
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth
- DePaul University
- Florida International University
- Guilford College
- Harvard University
- Haverford College
- Ithaca College
- James Madison University
- Lewis & Clark College
- Miami-Dade Community College
- Monterey Institute of International Studies
- New York University
- Niagara County Community College
- North Carolina State University
- Northern Illinois University
- Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Queens University (Canada)
- Sierra Nevada College
- Southwestern University (Texas)
- St. Cloud State University
- Stanford UniversityTufts University
- University of California—Berkeley
- University of California—Los Angeles
- University of California—Santa Cruz
- University of Central Florida
- University College Bangor
- University of Colorado—Boulder
- University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
- University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
- University of Nevada
- University of New Mexico
- University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
- University of the Redlands
- University of Rochester
- University of Texas—El Paso
- University of Vermont
- University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee
- Warren Wilson College
- Wilfred Laurier University (Canada)
Here are some comments from philosophy professors who regularly use The Witness in their ethics courses:
"The Witness is a first-hand account of ethical thought in progress. Viewers witness an ordinary man’s extraordinary change in moral perception and his decision to transform insight into action. The film is an invaluable resource for those who would impart to students the value of looking beyond appearances, reconsidering perceptions, questioning prevailing customs, and grappling with personal integrity." —Kathie Jenni, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of the Redlands
"If I could pick only one film to show to my Contemporary Moral Issues students, without a doubt that film would be The Witness." —Mylan Engel, Jr., Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University
