<p>While I read and enjoyed The Hunger Games series, and allowed my middle schooler to read it as well, I’m not certain that actually watching the story visually portrayed would be a good idea for this age group. After all, it’s about children killing other children as part of a survival “game.” (Seems an odd choice given the rash of school shootings nationally…) I am having a hard time envisioning how, with such a violent plot line, this movie could be anything other than R-rated, but apparently it’s PG-13. It seems our Board of Ed has already approved the field trip.</p>
<p>Due to the timing of the trip, it’s unlikely I will be able to watch the movie first before deciding whether or not to let my daughter see it. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I think making this a school field trip is inappropriate. This film could be upsetting to many students that age – as could the book.</p>
<p>But I don’t think that will be a problem for a young person who has already read the book. She knows what happens. She knows who dies and who doesn’t. The violence will have been toned down some to get that PG-13 rating. And there’s nothing sex-related that couldn’t be in a G movie. I doubt it will be upsetting to your daughter.</p>
<p>Your daughter is in middle school…she’s already read the books. I’m going to operate on the assumption that she knows there is no “fight to the death game” in real life. Unless you think she can’t handle pg-13 amounts of blood (not very much) then there’s no problem. I’ve read the books. The first book definitely would not produce an RRated movie.</p>
<p>So your daughter has read the book, but a better question is how does she do with movie violence in general? There is a difference in the way humans process what they read and what they view. I imagine she has probably seen some PG-13 movies with violence – how did she react to those.</p>
<p>On a side note, I have real problem with making this a school field trip for middle schoolers. S1 had a real problem with movies like this when he was in middle school, and always wanted to watch them either at home or to have one of us go with him at a time when there would be fewer people there so that he could be in control of how much of the movie he watched. I assume the kids or parents can opt out of the trip, but for an eighth grade boy to opt out of such a trip would be more embareassment than most kids want to deal with. I expect my son would have gone on the trip and then spent most of the movie in the bathroom.</p>
<p>Schools in our area are taking all 6th grade classes to the movie.
PG-13 rating doesn’t impress me. Ratings seem to be much more lenient with violence, than with say, sex, especially if from an independent studio.</p>
<p>I didn’t read all of the Dragon Tattoo book, so I admit I am sensitive to graphic violence. I also would note that while reading a book, the reader is in control & can skim ahead over violent scenes, it is more difficult to do filter images & sounds from a theatre unless you have your eyes closed & hands over your ears the whole time.</p>
<p>Your daughter should be able to tell you if she really wants to see the movie or if she would be bothered by it.</p>
<p>I wish schools would be more sensitive to the differences among students in their sensitivity to particular experiences and the difficulty they have in admitting to fears that are well within the normal range.</p>
<p>Some people react very strongly to intense movies. Others have different fears.</p>
<p>I know of an instance where a seventh grader brooded for months because his class would be taking an end-of-year trip to an amusement park, and he tended to get sick on rides – something he would not admit to his classmates. His proposed solution to the problem was to attempt to get suspended from school the day before the trip. Fortunately, the method of trying to get suspended that he planned to use was relatively harmless – yelling obscenities. His parent discovered what he planned to do and spoke to the school authorities. They said that rather than have a suspension go on his permanent record, he would be better off pretending to be sick on the day of the trip. That’s what he ended up doing.</p>
<p>I wonder whether there are kids who feel the same way about The Hunger Games – kids who will try to get themselves suspended to get out of a field trip to a movie that’s too scary for them. If your kid is among them, you might want to offer the option of a fake illness.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the books, and don’t have an opinion, but I am curious; is this field trip suppose to serve an educational purpose? What would that be?</p>
<p>I agree with all of the above. I was one of those sensitive kids and would worry for weeks before taking part in something that I knew was going to cause me anxiety. I sympathize with those kids. I also wonder what part of the curriculum is being supported by this viewing? Were the books required reading? Is it in the ELA curriculum? In my school system we are not allowed to take kids on a field trip unless it is directly connected to their curriculum (with the exception of “milestones” such as graduating from junior high or high school).</p>
<p>Not a good enough reason for me. Movies rarely expand the understanding of a book. I think a criteria for a field trip is that it expands knowledge. I’d rather my kid go for a walk in the woods than go on a bus to a movie.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that a middle schooler could undertsand that it’s fiction, and therefore she can’t/shouldn’t kill in real life. Same principle with me - I watch R-rated films (almost 18) with high amounts of sexual material or illegal drugs, but that doesn’t mean that I would do those things in real life. Age is arbitrary. You may think that kids “lose their innocence” when they watch things that may be deemed inappropriate, but someday they’re gonna lose it anyway. I have a very liberal view when it comes to film art - it kind of bugs me when parents prevent their kids from seeing movies that may be filled with questionable material, because really, what harm would it cause? My anthro prof said that there are 3 things that EVERY human does: we have sex, we have wars, and we trade. Perfect. 2/3 of those you wouldn’t see in a kiddie film.</p>
<p>My sophomore year of high school, all of the AP and Pre-AP World History class students had the option to go on a field trip to see Timeline, a sci-fi movie based off of a Michael Crichton book and starring the Paul Walker. It was quite the educational experience.</p>
<p>In my Outdoor Education class, taught by my soccer coach, we took enriching field trips to McDonalds, various local donut shops, Bass Pro shop and Wal-Mart.</p>
<p>Were the trips education? Heavens no, but they were fun and a nice little break from school. And fwiw, my high school prepared me very well for college and I actually found some of my AP classes to be harder than comparable college classes. Go Dragons!</p>
<p>I have to say I agree with questioning the decision.
Transportation costs, ticket price, chaperones- logistics of field trips is intense & the payoff should equal the investment. </p>
<p>If the curriculum dictates that a film be part of their studies, I bet that a similar themed movie can be found to be rented & viewed in the classroom.</p>
<p>My older daughter read Lord of the Flies as part of her 9th grade humanities course. Their connected field trip was to take a student led camping trip on the Olympic Peninsula. In November.</p>
<p>(The school has since redone the field trip to be more Homerian & they read Cold Mountain instead of LOTF)</p>
<p>The GFG, is your D an 11/12 year old sixth grader or a 13/14 year old eight grader?</p>
<p>In the fall of 2007,when S2 was a high school senior, every kid enrolled in senior level English (british lit.) went on a movie field trip to see Beowulf.</p>
<p>I think that for many families, this is less of a concern than the possibility that the young person could find the movie very upsetting. The circumstances under which the film would be viewed – big screen, in front of your classmates, with no opportunity to pause the film if you are uncomfortable – makes this far worse than watching a potentially upsetting DVD in your own home.</p>
<p>We should not forget that if the movie follows the storyline of the book, a highly sympathetic character of middle school age is going to die a very painful death onscreen. Some kids of the same age might find this scene especially difficult to watch, but there would be social (and perhaps even disciplinary) consequences for leaving the theater.</p>
<p>My D is a recently de-classified special ed. student who is emotionally immature for her age (13). There will be 7th and 8th graders going on the trip. She is very sensitive to sound and other stimuli, but I can’t always predict what or when. In particular, I can’t predict her level of emotional attachment to the characters or the action. Sometimes she seems affected by intense scenes, and sometimes not. If she is bothered she won’t act out or scream or anything–just turn her head or close her eyes. She used to leave the room. We haven’t watched many PG13 movies at home. I agree that the meaning of the rating is not reliable. There are some PG13 movies we’ve seen which IMO could easily have been PG, and others which I think should have been a resounding R.</p>
<p>They have not read The Hunger Games as a class novel–they did read Lord of the Flies, though–but suggested the kids read it and had a Hunger Games themed activity day this week. That’s another reason why I am not a fan of the trip–it doesn’t support the curriculum. With my older two I was pretty vocal about the excessive use of videos and movies in the classroom, the ill-advised selection of movies to show in school which don’t support learning (ET to teach them about space, The Patriot to teach history), and the showing in school of sensationalist R movies with no redeeming value (Alive) to middle schoolers without parental permission, etc. I think I posted a thread about this topic on CC years ago, as a matter of fact. But I am older and tireder now and not sure this is a battle I wish to fight. I’d like to pass the baton on to some other crusader!</p>