Amanda Wilder's Approaching the Elephant is an intimate look at the Teddy McArdle Free School, a school that uses a radical approach in educating its students, not simply relying on reading, writing, and arithmetic, the standard in more traditional public school system. At Teddy McArdle Free School, the students are allowed to gradually discover their own interests and identities, being a self-governing democratic community in which all classes are voluntary. With this documentary, Amanda Wilder offers a unique window into this more radical approach to schooling, inviting us into a world where children and teachers are viewed as equals, working together to resolve various problems that come to fruition throughout the school year. Going into Amanda Wilder's Approaching The Elephant, I was expecting a film focused on tearing down the traditional educational system, but fortunately this couldn't be further from reality, as Approaching the Elephant is much more an observant study of behavior among young and impressionable minds, offering a subtle commentary in the process. Approaching The Elephant's intent seems to be simply be about starting a discussion about education, with the film revealing tons of intricate details of how different all children are as it pertains to education and learning. The Free School system has its own flaws and faults, much like the traditional school system, and Approaching the Elephant exposes how the degree of success can differ among students -while one little girl at the school is responding in a very positive way to this more lackadaisical school-structure, another boy rebels and takes advantage of it as every turn. This juxtaposition is very key in Approaching the Elephant, revealing how everyone is different when it comes to learning. It's exhilarating to see these young children apply democratic principles to conflicts, as Approaching The Elephant presents a school that finds itself teetering between educational freedom and chaos. A visceral and borderline chaotic experience, Amanda Wilder's Approaching The Elephant is a fascinating and observant documentary that raises interesting questions about education and how we as individuals learn.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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