Greetings from The Paley Center for Media’s Education Department!
Welcome to the latest installment of “What We’re Watching.” Twice a month the education department reaches out to the community with tips and ideas for consuming media with kids by highlighting different themes that connect to two selected programs, one for younger viewers and one for older viewers, each with related activities and resources.
Watching media alongside your kids is a perfect jumping-off point to making media literacy a part of your everyday lives. Familiarizing yourself with the basics is a great first step. You can view our first newsletter about media literacy best practices archived here. We also recommend the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Parents Guide—it’s a terrific introduction!
What We're Watching: Songs of Freedom
Music is a powerful medium for expression. A unique art form, music reconnects our intangible selves, our minds, our hearts, our souls to a time when our sense of the world was not literate but magical, more sonic and physical, less cerebral and grounded. Flying on fanciful wings, a song flutters and soars, spreading medicinal melodies that affirm and heal or broadcast frontline reports of pain, anger, joy, and bravery. In these grievous times, the power of music to raise awareness and bridge different experiences to a common humanity has never been more critical. For this month, we turn the mic up on two videos that showcase how music gives voice to the young people of Palestine. Helping unify a world discordant and out of tune, a song mends and envisions a path towards change, justice, and ultimately peace.
This Week's Recommendations for Younger Viewers
Oh, This World (2014)
Recommended for Grades 4+
Available on YouTube
Filmed in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, this graceful, poetic, and tender music video centers the voices of young Palestinian children proclaiming, through song, their “right for the world to hear my words.” The video begins at dawn as the city awakens. A young Palestinian boy walks through the souq, an open-air marketplace, taking pictures of children playing and working. Scenes of everyday life cut between recording sessions of the young vocalists as they relate their stories in verse and melody. Providing prudent advice, the young singers remind adults that education can’t be taught “with a stick,” and school should not turn “into a prison.” Symbolizing the power and enchantment of their defiant imaginations, the children declare that “with violence they can silence our songs. But our eyes will sing.” When the windows we use to see our world join others in chorus, perhaps our world can sing a joyful song.
Viewing Questions
- What words would you use to describe the music: the piano, violin, and youth chorus?
- How does this song make you feel?
- What do you think is meant by the lyrics, “when a child in my country speaks; when he laughs, when he cries; it means he has a message, and he wants it to be received; this is how a child complains.”
- Why do you think the young boy with a camera is taking pictures?
- Why do you think the young girl is selling roses?
- Where does the young photographer take the young boy playing video games? Why do you think he takes him there?
- How is this community in Jenin different or like your community?
- How would you describe the power of music?
Additional Resources
Read
Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck
We are Palestinian: A Celebration of Culture and Tradition by Reem Kassis, illustrated by Noha Eilouti
Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story by Malak Mattar
Watch
I Am from Palestine
