When Personal and Civic Engagement Are Not Enough

Reviews the film, Won't Back Down, directed by Daniel Barnz (2012). This film highlights the value of moving beyond localized definitions of what it means to promote individuals’ educational rights by offering vivid portraits of the shortcomings associated with treating learning as the sole responsibility of individuals and schools as civic organizations. Illustrating these tensions in one urban community, Won’t Back Down teaches viewers about many of the blind spots in how schools in the United States address basic educational needs. Needy students and dedicated parents satirically battle with self-serving bureaucracies, revealing the limitations of assuming that equal educational opportunity will prevail when personal and civic engagement converge. The film is disturbing for anyone who has worked with school reform for any length of time. Ultimately, the message goes, people must teach themselves, and it is unrealistic to lean on experts who spend their lives working in educational institutions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)