Hello!
What follows is a cut-n-paste from a post I made on Penn and Teller's messageboards over on Mofo.
"... are there any teachers out there who are interested in teaching an episode of ‘Bulls**t’ to their students? I know some episodes (eg. ‘Sex sex sex’) obviously would be frowned upon by my school (although I would just have to play a few of the direct address rants by Penn to make a case as to why they _should_ be shown...but I work with students ranging from 15 to 17 years of age and the case itself says that it’s rated for Nudity, Adult Language, Adult Content... I also found it interesting that there’s a ‘censored’ sticker in some advertising for the box set, over the title... Odd... why is it broadcast if the title itself is seen as offensive by some? Or is there someone out there who can explain what Showtime shows are like to a person from outside the U.S?).
But I am fascinated by the series and thrilled to know that it has been released with a second season on the way. I hope that whoever is choosing the subjects will include the idiotic, insane world of so-called beauty treatments for women and the deadly horror that is Naturopathy. I know it was touched upon in one episode, but I've known people who have spent thousands on what is basically animal fat with scent and also know someone who lost their life to the utter crap that is Naturopathy.
SO!
Amidst all of my babble, I have this question -
Any fellow educators interested in bouncing off ideas about my teaching one or two of the 'Bulls**t' episodes to a high-school class? What I may end up doing is posting what I plan to do (since with my schedule, I'll be doing it around the end of the year, around September anyway, so this gives me plenty of time to review and post my strategies) and feel free to ignore or send 'what the????' messages to me.
"
I'd also like to make the statement that when I've been looking for materials to help teach critical thinking to high school students, some of my great findings (apart from the Philosophy in Schools programmes by Lipman, et al. and the James Randi lectures from the JREF site) have come from so-called 'comic' shows.
At the moment, I'm teaching a term-long course on 'Reality?' to my 15 year olds. One topic we are touching upon is reality TV. It's out there. It's popular. Some of my students have older siblings or relatives, even an older classmate, who auditioned for 'Popstars', which is an Australian version of the 'American/Australian/British Etc. Idol' show. We have those 'Idol' shows too, but they're all basically the same.
The most useful visual tool I found so far that prompts discussion and thought about what effect these sorts of shows could have on the individual's psyche and general community? A section from an Australian anarchic comedy show by John Safran ('Music Jamboree') about how union laws don't protect the winners of the competition and how the NZ band 'Hear'say' ended up bankrupt and abandoned after they no longer were flavour of the month.
It certainly didn't bode well for such shows!
Okay, sure. Some of these winners go on and on... like... um....
...
Anyway, making these students think that there's more to showbiz than posing about on TV singing a song is a useful icebreaker to start students questioning other things they are told by the media.
Why not use Bulls**t as well?
********************
Huh... I just discovered something... this site also censors out the last word in the title... another interesting discovery .... I guess we in Australia see enough of that substance being used in our Palimentary debates so it is no longer censored for us...
What follows is a cut-n-paste from a post I made on Penn and Teller's messageboards over on Mofo.
"... are there any teachers out there who are interested in teaching an episode of ‘Bulls**t’ to their students? I know some episodes (eg. ‘Sex sex sex’) obviously would be frowned upon by my school (although I would just have to play a few of the direct address rants by Penn to make a case as to why they _should_ be shown...but I work with students ranging from 15 to 17 years of age and the case itself says that it’s rated for Nudity, Adult Language, Adult Content... I also found it interesting that there’s a ‘censored’ sticker in some advertising for the box set, over the title... Odd... why is it broadcast if the title itself is seen as offensive by some? Or is there someone out there who can explain what Showtime shows are like to a person from outside the U.S?).
But I am fascinated by the series and thrilled to know that it has been released with a second season on the way. I hope that whoever is choosing the subjects will include the idiotic, insane world of so-called beauty treatments for women and the deadly horror that is Naturopathy. I know it was touched upon in one episode, but I've known people who have spent thousands on what is basically animal fat with scent and also know someone who lost their life to the utter crap that is Naturopathy.
SO!
Amidst all of my babble, I have this question -
Any fellow educators interested in bouncing off ideas about my teaching one or two of the 'Bulls**t' episodes to a high-school class? What I may end up doing is posting what I plan to do (since with my schedule, I'll be doing it around the end of the year, around September anyway, so this gives me plenty of time to review and post my strategies) and feel free to ignore or send 'what the????' messages to me.
"I'd also like to make the statement that when I've been looking for materials to help teach critical thinking to high school students, some of my great findings (apart from the Philosophy in Schools programmes by Lipman, et al. and the James Randi lectures from the JREF site) have come from so-called 'comic' shows.
At the moment, I'm teaching a term-long course on 'Reality?' to my 15 year olds. One topic we are touching upon is reality TV. It's out there. It's popular. Some of my students have older siblings or relatives, even an older classmate, who auditioned for 'Popstars', which is an Australian version of the 'American/Australian/British Etc. Idol' show. We have those 'Idol' shows too, but they're all basically the same.
The most useful visual tool I found so far that prompts discussion and thought about what effect these sorts of shows could have on the individual's psyche and general community? A section from an Australian anarchic comedy show by John Safran ('Music Jamboree') about how union laws don't protect the winners of the competition and how the NZ band 'Hear'say' ended up bankrupt and abandoned after they no longer were flavour of the month.
It certainly didn't bode well for such shows!Okay, sure. Some of these winners go on and on... like... um....
...Anyway, making these students think that there's more to showbiz than posing about on TV singing a song is a useful icebreaker to start students questioning other things they are told by the media.
Why not use Bulls**t as well?
********************
Huh... I just discovered something... this site also censors out the last word in the title... another interesting discovery .... I guess we in Australia see enough of that substance being used in our Palimentary debates so it is no longer censored for us...
