Inherit the Wind Bag part 3 of 4

At every turn, the movie makers took every opportunity to make small-town people of faith look bigoted, narrow-minded, and ignorant. The portrayal would be almost comical if it weren’t so egregious. The stereotyping of Middle America is so bad as to be on par with depictions of napping Mexicans in sombreros and hayseed African-Americans eating watermelon.

By contrast, the movie systematically makes the supporters of evolution look even-keeled, intelligent, and dedicated to high-minded principles.

Pretty ironic that a movie that purportedly is about doggedly pursuing the truth played fast and loose with the facts. A movie about relentlessly pursuing the truth that does anything but.

At first I was bummed out that I had wasted money securing a copy of the DVD (man alive does Amazon stick it to you for overseas shipping) that was pretty much useless for teaching the historic 1925 Scopes Trial.

But then I realized that all was not lost. In fact, this was a golden opportunity.

As a history and English teacher, one of my objectives is to teach media literacy. For example, every quarter, all my history students have to watch a movie of their choosing about American history (Flyboys, October Skies, The Right Stuff…) and write up a book-report style synopsis.

Watching parts of “Inherit the Wind” could help students learn to not unthinkingly accept everything that Hollywood churns out.

I rewrote my lesson plans.