Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Wild Child

Caroline and I finally saw Where the Wild Things Are. All along, I had no intention of taking Lily. Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers does not a children's film make. At least not for little ones. Caroline and I loved it. Are you all surprised? I was especially thrilled with Caroline, my Indie Kid in the making. We went with a friend who really didn't care for it and Caroline had no problem telling an adult that she liked it and wasn't at all embarrassed or awkward.



The movie was exactly what I expected (Well,the monsters were a little chatty/whiny/self-absorbed. At times they reminded me of my art school friends. All they were missing was a couple of lattes.). The movie was filmed beautifully. Especially the opening. It reminded me so much of being a child, especially my brother (whom I believe Max was modeled after.) I knew it would completely tap into my feelings about the primal-ness of children. http://mooserbeans.blogspot.com/2009/05/of-two-minds.html

In this movie, Max had every right to be angry. The issue with Max was how he chose to deal with that anger. Kids are not angelic beings. I think they are awesome, but they are people in the making, trying to find their place. The rest of the movie is how Max works through this in his imagination (my favorite way to cope). The movie is violent. As much as I don't like to think about it, kids are violent. I had to eliminate the table point system in my classroom because I was afraid one of my kids would "shank" another with a sharp pencil because he wasn't quiet enough to earn them points. Now we have a very peaceful new age policy where we all work in harmony to earn a group activity. I also know these guys aren't leaving the school singing "Free to Be You and Me" everyday. There is still aggression. Hopefully, I can help them find better ways to deal with it (my current plan is basketball and running). I am going to close now. There is primal screaming coming form within my house. Hopefully, no one sails aways for a day and another day.

1 comment:

Ellen said...

Hey Missy!
I got your comment on my blog... I'm around over Christmas and in January, but I told the bookstore I could work, and now I might be going back early for a trip to Paris (!!!). If you guys don't have any big plans, maybe I can come down for New Years again? I would love to see you guys, I miss you a lot! Oh, and if you wouldn't mind, maybe we could watch Where the Wild Things Are? I haven't seen it but I don't want to watch it online haha :).
Love you and miss you all!
Ellen