On the Way to School

[psocoptera]

The kids can't go to school so I made them watch On the Way to School as a social studies activity - this is a 2013 documentary following children in four remote rural areas (Kenya, the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Patagonia in Argentina, and somewhere on the coast of India) on their daily or weekly journey to school. I thought this was great - the kids were a great mix of matter-of-fact about their long journeys and determined to deal with the difficult parts (like the threat of elephants in Kenya or needing to find someone willing to pick up hitchhikers in Morocco). I liked the inclusion of a kid who uses a wheelchair, and the way we get to see some of the daily life of each family, and the gorgeous scenery they travel through. My kids were reluctant (a movie that wasn't some kind of exciting cartoon??) but I think they ended up finding it more interesting and compelling than they expected. I would love recs for other kid-friendly documentaries that people have seen - I'm particularly interested in cultural/historical/technological topics, although I'd also be interested to hear about nature docs that don't have dead baby animals or a significant focus on environmental destruction/climate collapse/etc. (I think that's an important topic but this is perhaps not the time.)

Comments

[oracne]

That sounds truly excellent.