NFB Collection
The Mind of a Child
199559 min 31 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Gary Marcuse
Production: Gary MarcuseSvend-Erik EriksenLorna Williams
Script: Gary Marcuse
Produced by Face to Face Media Society in association with the NFB, British Columbia Film and Knowledge Network/Open Learning Agency and with the participation of Telefilm Canada.
This title is an acquisition.
Children on the edge
How can children adapt and do more than survive in neighbourhoods where violence is common? How can they learn in schools where teachers have given up on them?
This challenging documentary follows the successful work of Lorna Williams, who set out to help Indigenous children in Canada who are dropping out of school, losing hope, and committing suicide in terrifying numbers. Her search led her to Reuven Feuerstein, an Israeli psychologist who began his work with the children of the Holocaust.
Feuerstein's ideas provide deep insight into the way children learn. Lorna returned to Canada with a renewed approach to teaching that reveals the intelligence and ability of the children, and helps them to build missing skills. The same methods prove useful with children "at risk" in the inner-city neighbourhoods of Washington, D.C.
Endorsed by a Royal Commission
Feuerstein's "mediated learning" theory and teaching methods, as adapted by Lorna Williams, have been recommended by the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
Availability
Other versions
Subject categories
- Children and Youth > Child Rearing and DevelopmentCultural GroupsEducation and School LifeIndigenous Youth
- Psychology and Psychiatry > ChildrenPortraits
- Indigenous Peoples in Canada (First Nations and Métis) > ChildrenEducation
- People with disabilities > Children with DisabilitiesEducation
- Education > Children with disabilitiesIndigenous PeoplesPortraitsTeaching Methods
- Foreign Countries > IsraelUnited States
- Health/Personal Development > Identity
Credits
- director
- Gary Marcuse
- script
- Gary Marcuse
- producer
- Gary Marcuse
- Svend-Erik Eriksen
- associate producer
- Lorna Williams
- cinematography
- Kirk Tougas
- sound
- Terence McKeown
- Gary Marcuse
- Eli Taragan
- Roger Stefackis
- editing
- Paul Lievesley
- re-recording
- Dieter Piltz
- Ewan Deane
- animation
- Rubén Möller
- music
- Henry Heillig