In junior and senior high schools today, there are reputable elective courses that are being seen as both fun and educational.
Art and music are the cream of the crop when looking at those entertaining classes in which a gift can be explored and nourished amid long hard days ridden with math and science homework.
In most curricula today, there are even telecommunications, journalism and computer classes for students to test out their skills in possible career fields.
However, a great number of schools frown upon the growth and development of classes on film literature and criticism.
In my high school, we had one film class and it was called "film literature." While about three of the students really took films seriously and understood techniques and film movements, the rest sought only the chance to sleep and not pay attention. Since then, the current teacher of the class asked me about books and films that would be suitable for such a class.
Even in upper-level high school classes, on days when movies or documentaries are shown for educational purposes, students tend to not take them seriously. Films like "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Schindler's List" were not even watched by a majority of the students in my high school.
Yet, there is a real need for good classes in film literature and criticism in high schools throughout America.
Today's youth population is more in-tune with the entertainment industries of film, television and the Internet than any generation before. However, young people's knowledge of how to interpret the images and stories they're exposed to is shrinking.
The youth of today misunderstands the messages of films like "Fight Club." To many males, the message is simply about fighting, and for many females, the movie is about the hot body of Brad Pitt. However, the movie is really a mixture of commentary on the political and social world we live in today, as well as on nihilism and male culture and dominance.
As the images of American popular culture become more complex and intriguing, the American public must become more analytical.
However, that is not what is happening in the American public school system.
Today's youth has become so focused on passing standardized tests that the meaning of what we read, do and see is completely being "left behind."
How many teenagers would understand "Citizen Kane," "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "Apocalypse Now" for the messages they send? And if they can't understand those films, how will they ever be able to comprehend films that show the world as it is today, such as "Requiem for a Dream," "Syriana" or "Crash"?
Film literature is not about watching films and talking about whether you like them or not: It is about understanding the poetic and humanistic aspects of ourselves as seen through the motion pictures we watch.
Today's popular culture of film, radio, music, television and literature is about us, and by looking at the popular culture of the past, we understand a little bit more about the people of that time.
If no steps are taken soon to help the students of today better understand popular culture, the domino effect will step in and our children and grandchildren will look back on this era and misunderstand it completely.
"Fight Club," for example, could be seen as a motion picture about our violent state and nothing more. People might not see the underlying social and political messages of the film.
One of the last things people want in life is to be misunderstood.
If we work today to save the curricula that are endangered - like film literature - our present will be less misunderstood in our children and grandchildren's future.
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