Monday, April 02, 2007

The Devil Wears Prada

Remember that movie "Broadcast News" starring Holly Hunter, William Hurt and Al Brooks? I caught a bit of it on the tube the other day and was reminded of the part where Brooks - trying to warn Hunter off - tells her that Hurt is the Devil. Hunter rolls her eyes at the apparent hyperbole and Brooks says no, come on, "what do you think the Devil will look like when he appears? horns and tail? no! he'll look just like that."
His point, of course, is that evil creeps up in disguise - because its evil. Anyway, I only mention this because it popped into my head while i read this story on the Beeb's website here.

3 comments:

ex-democrat said...

needless to say, the current position of my english buddies regarding the iran hostage crisis is ....

......{birds chirping}.....

Knucklehead said...

Good freakin' grief!

[S]chools minister Lord Adonis said the national curriculum encouraged teachers to choose content "likely to resonate in their multicultural classrooms" - but some found it difficult to do that.

The Historical Association report claimed: "Teachers and schools avoid emotive and controversial history for a variety of reasons, some of which are well-intentioned.

"Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes.


Notfuhnuttin' but I don't recall my brats teachers worrying the least little bit about causing offence. Since when, over the past 30 years or more, has the Educational Establishment worried about pissing off the local parents?

"In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship."

Oh... oh... sumpin's comin' here... wait for it...

The report gave the example of a history department in a northern city which decided not to teach the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework.

Hmmmm... the plot thickens...

It cited another school which taught the Holocaust, but then avoided teaching the Crusades because "balanced treatment" of the topic would have challenged what some local mosques were teaching.

Huh? What? Say again?

Emotive issues such as the slave trade can be taught too blandly, portraying Afro-Caribbeans as victims and isolating black children, the report said.

But when teachers downplay the role of the white authorities in abolishing the slave trade, white children can become alienated.


OK, slather some stuff about how blacks and whites get touchy about the history of the slave trade and then, lip service having been paid, return to the real issue, which is...

The report called for resources, which were scarce at present, to be made available to teach controversial and emotional history subjects.

The teachers union wants more jobs and some armed guards nearby if and when they teach something that might tick off the muzzies.

loner said...

Only bound screenplay I own:

He is supposed to be Turkish. First generation, maybe second. Some say his father was German. All kinds of stories about him. What he's done, who he's killed. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Sume. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

—Christopher McQuarrie, The Usual Suspects, 2/28/94

"Sume" became "Soze" sometime later and Kevin Spacey delivered the line in an Academy Award-winning performance in the movie directed by Bryan Singer. The two teamed up again with Spacey playing Lex Luthor (indifferently) in Superman Returns.

The line in question was lifted from The Generous Gambler (English translation) by Charles Pierre Baudelaire.