Okay, the documentary filmmaker for Super Size Me, about the evils of eating at McDonald’s, has been going around the country to high schools, giving talks to educate high schoolers about the dangers of fast food, as part of health fairs and the like. No problem. Here are the bits that caught my eye (Broken link, active March 27, 2006): (hat tip: Michelle Malkin.)
“On Friday afternoon at Hatboro-Horsham High School in eastern Montgomery County, administrators say he put his foot in his mouth during an entertaining and humorous but profanity-laced, politically incorrect address to about 700 students.”
By “profanity-laced,” they mean the show would have had to air on HBO if the exact same program was on television. By “politically incorrect,” they mean that his numerous slurs against special education students (who were in attendance at the event) and immigrants working the counter at McDonald’s (hey, it’s an entry- level job; no one denies that) were, um, offensive and tasteless. Thus the controversy. A few people at this school were offended, that is the good news! But the bad news continues:
“Spurlock defended himself, saying he has given similar talks at other high schools and at colleges, and never had a problem.”
Oh, dear.
“In preparation for his appearance, students watched Super Size Me and calculated calories in math class.”
This was a high school. A high school. And they are spending their class time watching this stuff and calculating calories, a 6th grade level skill at best?
Seems to me like watching a movie is something they could do in non-school hours. Too bad we spend more time entertaining kids than educating them.
This is sad isn’t it, this film was shown recently at a high school here in GA. My friend was quite upset by it.