Daniel Day Lewis’s striking portrayal of Abraham Lincoln as he works the political maze to pass the 13th amendment to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude in the film Lincoln will be coming to all public and private school middle and high schools as soon as the DVD hits stores.
"As more and more people began to see the film, we received letters from teachers asking if it could be available in their classrooms," director and producer Steven Spielberg said in a press release. "We realized that the educational value that Lincoln could have was not only for the adult audiences—who have studied his life in history books—but for young students in the classroom as well."
Funded by Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures, and Fox/Newscorp, the DVD will come with a teaching guide and lesson plans put together by Disney Educational Productions.
"Before the film was released, we engaged Penn Schoen Berland to conduct a research study to help inform the focus of our Social Action campaign for Lincoln, " Participant Media CEO Jim Berk said. "Among the findings of the study was that more than half of Americans think it's important to learn about Lincoln, but two-thirds say they know little to nothing about him. While I'm sure that's changed thanks to the tremendous popularity of the film and all the surrounding attention, it still clearly indicated the need to better educate our students about the 16th president's accomplishments.”
Spielberg used Doris Kearns Goodwin’s acclaimed A Team of Rivals as a basis for Tony Kushner’s script, which has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“How accurate Lincoln is from an historical perspective is no doubt a topic that could be debated, and debated, but I've seen a few articles suggesting that many historians see it as generally on target,” wrote Erik Robelen in his Curriculum Matters blog for Education Week.
The filmmakers did take dramatic license, according to experts who screened the film as part of the Lincoln Forum in Gettyburg back in November. Still, they applauded the portrayal and the film overall. Read the Washington Post’s report here.
What’s key for teachers is to use the film as a teaching tool to spur discussion and address the historic accuracies and inaccuracies. iTunes is also offering a free app for iBooks about the film called Lincoln: A Steven Spielberg Film—Discover the Story by Disney Book Group.
Additional ISM resources of interest
Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 7 No. 4 21st Century Teaching: Lessons That Are Challenging, Relevant, and Reflective
Additional resources for ISM Consortium Gold Members
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 35 No. 3 The 21st Century School: Curriculum and Technology
