M. Knight Shyamalan at the National Press Club

Posted on June 13, 2014 at 10:16 pm

Writer/director M. Knight Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “The Last Airbender,” “After Earth”), appeared at the National Press Club this week to talk about his side project, an intensive assessment of American schools and proposals for reform, as described in his book, I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Movie Maker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America’s Education Gap. He became interested in the issue after he visited two schools just four minutes apart. In one, the students were vitally engaged and excited about all possibilities. They gathered around him, asking if they could be in his next movie. In the other, they recognized him but assumed that it could not possibly be the same man who made Hollywood films. They had already internalized the idea that no opportunities would come to them.

Shyamalan is the son of doctors. He was raised to believe in evidence and data. He spent years trying to figure out the elements that separated effective schools from failing schools and found that there were a lot of passionate adults and a lot of “heated, accusatory” arguments but very little quantifiable, replicable data. He had his own studies done and he found five core elements that were necessary for schools that made students excited about learning so that they would achieve at or beyond grade level. All five were required.

First is: principals who spend 80 percent of their time teaching teachers (“the norm is 8 percent, like a coach not coaching the players”) and the creation of “an incredibly loud and consistent culture.” He spoke frankly about the racism that is still a toxic force in the lives of children today. “They’re getting a message shouted to them outside of the school and we’re going to shout one louder.” That’s what school culture can do, especially in communicating a sense of community and possibility.

He also emphasized the importance of teachers. A good one can sustain a student despite subsequent years of mediocre teachers. But a bad one will make students lag for as much as three more years. Data must be available for continuous assessment and feedback and to create a highest common denominator by making best practices replicable. More time with the students is essential. The school day and especially the school year do not provide enough time and kids who do not have access to resources at home fall too far behind over the summer to catch up. And schools must be smaller. By itself, keeping the school to 350 or fewer raises the graduation rate 17 percent.

Shyamalan was engaged and engaging, self-deprecatory (“celebrity advocates make my stomach cringe”) but passionate. It was good to see his willingness to take on this complicated problem and be a constructive part of the solution.

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MPAA Head Chris Dodd Speaks at the National Press Club

Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:43 pm

Yesterday Chris Dodd, head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), spoke at the National Press Club, which prepared movie poster cookies in his honor. As a member of the club who writes about movies, I was invited to watch from the head table. Dodd, who was a Connecticut Senator for 30 years (his father also represented Connecticut in the Senate), now runs the trade association for the film industry, which includes lobbying Congress and the Senate on matters like piracy and copyright and assigning ratings from G to NC-17. He spoke eloquently on “why movies matter.” As an art form, he said, it is a “spectacular convergence” of visual arts, language arts, and music, attracting some of the most talented people in the world who want to paint on one of the largest and most stimulating canvases ever created. They “tell stories that help us make sense of our world” and are “a vehicle to raise awareness of social and political issues.”

He emphasized the importance of the movie and television production industry to the US economy. There is a 7 to one export/import ratio, higher than in any other sector. “For every unfathomably rich and beautiful star” there are thousands of people who are employed by the industry, more than 2 million, who have careers, not just jobs, many of which are good paying jobs even for those without a college degree. Also, movies brand America in the eyes of the world, communicating our openness and opportunity. He quoted one man who told him that he did not agree with much of what the US does, but had to admire the way our filmmakers are so open in their own critiques of America and its policies. “Your movies examine, ridicule, and challenge public institutions — and get awards for it!”

And he said that every movie is hand-crafted. Movies also inspire unique technological breakthroughs. Ang Lee had to wait 12 years from the time he first wanted to make “Life of Pi” into movie until the technology could be developed to make it work.

Dodd spoke of the need to balance the “free and open internet,” which he supports, with protection of intellectual property. “Free and open cannot be synonymous with working for free.”

Asked about the responsibility the movie industry bears for its portrayal of violence and the impact that has on audiences, especially children and teenagers, he said with evident feeling that Newtown affected him personally — he once represented the Sandy Hook community. And Connecticut is the seventh largest producer of guns. “It is not an abstraction to me.” But his comments were on the abstract side — along the lines of “we of course want to be part of the conversation,” emphasizing the “slippery slope” of content regulation, and pointing to the lack of support for the mentally ill and their families as a more important problem. “We provide choice. Not every movie is for everyone.” The MPAA supports educating the audience about the tools it already makes available for control. Similarly, he was not willing to commit to any overhaul of the MPAA’s unnecessarily obscure, inconsistent, and biased toward the big studios ratings system. He also dodged specifics in answering questions about privacy and copyright extension.

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend at the National Press Club to Talk About Teen Cancer

Posted on November 12, 2012 at 6:14 pm

I got to hear The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend speak at the National Press Club today, which saluted them with “Tommy” cookies. They were there on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a non-profit devoted to improving the way young people with cancer and their families are treated and supported. “There’s a huge gap in the health care system,” Daltrey said. There are facilities for children and adults, but “teenagers don’t want teddy bears.” If businesses, who see teenagers as a lucrative market, recognize that they are unique, so should the medical establishment. They may need the same medicine, but their psychological, emotional, and social needs are different.”They love to be together,” he said. “We try to make their lives as normal as possible.” He told us about touring an impressive hospital facility that was “nicer than some of the hotels we stay in,” with atriums and palm trees. “But I did not see one square foot of space where a teenager could be happy.” A place for parents to stay and get support is also important.

The UK program has led to a 10-15% improvement in survival rates. “If you had a drug that made that kind of difference, they would throw billions at you.”

He hopes to promote a more comprehensive clinical recognition of the unique needs of teenagers, who often receive later diagnoses than they should because doctors are not looking for cancer. Their successful UK program is expanding to the US with the first program at UCLA and conversations underway with other hospitals. Daltrey is deeply involved as a passionate advocate and as a fundraiser, persuading other rock stars to help out by reminding them that “the music business would not exist without teenagers.”

Daltrey and Townsend good-naturedly answered questions about music, though they said performing for the teens in the program was not on the agenda. “We might kill off the rest of the hospital.” Townsend declined to say whether current music was better or worse than the music of the Woodstock era. “‘Classic rock’ is a term made up by radio DJs to sell advertising,” he said. “The continuum is the teen we all carry inside us.”

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Ludacris at the National Press Club

Posted on October 25, 2009 at 10:00 am

My good friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon and I went to hear hip-hop artist/actor/philanthropist Ludacris speak at the National Press Club on Friday. He was there to talk about his foundation and the work it does in Atlanta and around the world to help provide opportunities, guidance, and inspiration for young people. His opening remarks were impressive as he described programs that provided 20 cars to people who needed them in order to do their jobs and take care of their families and described his goal: “Not so much to see what nobody has seen as to think what nobody has thought about what everybody sees.” He spoke about his family’s “deep-rooted tradition of service that underscores the responsibility we all have.” He was grateful that his own commitment to giving back was underscored is his first job, working for Radio One. Boss Cathy Hughes insisted on community service from her employees each week, establishing a precedent for what Ludacris would do after he became a successful recording artist.
The best part was his responses to the questions from the audience, which included local teenagers and fans as well as seasoned reporters. He told the audience not to attribute violence to hip-hop but to ignorance. And he spoke of the way the hip-hop community came together in a matter of hours to help him when one of his projects needed support. My favorite moment was his answer to a question about the most important lessons he learned from his mother, Roberta Shields, who now serves as president of the foundation. He said he could not count the important lessons he learned from her but he would tell us one. He always did well in school, especially in math, but she would give him extra work to do and he did not like it, especially one annual assignment to write down his expectations and goals. He hated it at the time, but Ludacris (born Chris Bridges) attributes his success to her insistence that he be specific and concrete and accountable for his aspirations. He learned from that to “stop quitting.” If he did not achieve the previous year’s goals, he had to think about why he did not and how to do better next time. I looked over at her and saw her beaming with pride.

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