Since we all have a lot of time at home nowadays, I’m recommending an exceptional documentary the Family on the Edge clan is watching together: America to Me, which – at this writing – is streaming on Hulu and free on the Starz website. The production is a nuanced 10-part series directed by Steve James (of Hoop Dreams fame) about Chicago’s Oak Park and River Forest High School. The film follows multiple students and, in doing so, explores racial disparities and the achievement gap.
The kids in the film span grades, racial groups, and educational tracks. James does an excellent job of demonstrating that while some changes to the system are obviously and urgently necessary, how to effectively intervene in other ways is hazy. He does an excellent job of showing how kids are caught in the middle of adult problems and prejudices. Despite that – amazingly – many of them shine.