A lot of thought goes into deciding next year’s electives. Interests, classmates, teachers, and possible freeperiods are all factors. Many juniors and seniors have jobs, sports, and other extra activities, so many choose to take only six or seven classes instead of eight.
Faced with other classes such as Marine Biology, another year of foreign language, or art, many are asking themselves the question of, is History Through Film a worthy elective to take?
Senior Gideon Blake said, ¨absolutely, because it’s an easy class that is tons of fun and you get to watch a lot of good movies.¨
Blake is a Rocklin High School track and cross country star, and like many others on campus, he was faced with that same question. He said, ¨It’s a fun way to learn about history because you’re watching movies, not sitting in a lecture, and the movies are all different and expand your knowledge of what happened in history.¨
Senior Colton Wilson also agreed, saying, ¨I really suggest this class, and it’s really fun. I’ve got a lot of really great friends in there, and Spears, who teaches this class, is pretty cool, and he tells a lot of really great stories, which I like.” Wilson also added that the class is also a really good way to earn elective credits in order to graduate.
¨It’s a fun way to learn about history because you’re watching movies, not sitting in a lecture, and the movies are all different and expand your knowledge of what happened in history.¨
This class is not only a good option for movie lovers, Wilson added, but also for those interested in topics such as the military or US history.
Wilson himself likes to watch movies about the military because his brother is a marine and he plans to join himself. Because this class follows US history so closely, especially through the military, it is also a way to learn history from a cinematic point of view.
So what do you even do in the class? According to the RHS Academic Planning Guide, “The purpose of this course is to help students develop the historical thinking skill of analysis and
corroboration with media and historical documents.”
Wilson remarked that in a typical class period, “after the movies we write a critique about what we thought of the movie, and we write our thoughts about it, what we felt, what historic events take place in the movie. We watch four or three movies each [quarter]. Sometimes we work on assignments. Right now we are doing music quizzes on how there are different phases of music, right now we’re in the 70s, which has great music. Right now we are listening to rock, and around the 60s and the 50s it was kind of like soft music, we started to go more into cool music.” Not only does this class cover history through film but also through other media such as music.
A big part of any class is the teacher. And for this class Mr. Spears, the former athletic director at RHS, is, perfect … because he’s involved and makes connections with the movies to us,¨ commented Blake. What movies do they watch?
“Well, it’s technically like everything, a few months ago we watched this movie where this Irish immigrant came to the USA to get a job and have the American Dream, and it’s in different types of roles. Like “Saving Private Ryan” was in France and Germany, with the Nazis, [you see it from a lot of different people’s point of view],” said Wilson.
According to the National Council for Social Studies, ¨film is a part of popular culture and is relevant to students’ everyday lives. Most students spend over 7 hours a day using media (over 50 hours a week). Nearly 50 percent of students’ media use per day is devoted to videos (film) and television.¨
Overall, this class watches movies that relate to our lives today and those of the past, has discussions, and is ¨tons of fun,¨ according to Blake.
