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Izzit Capitalist Propaganda?
Illustrator: © 1978 USPS
Free teaching materials intrigue me. I could spend hours perusing Curriki and TeacherTube for appropriate, anti-biased resources for my 8th-grade U.S. History students. So, when forwarded a link to izzit.org—which allegedly serves 195,000 teachers, 44,000 schools, and 18 million students—I took the bait. As the basic but inviting website opened, my eyes were immediately drawn to the free DVD offerings for educators. I began scanning the list of films, entertaining the possibility that the cryptically titled Yours and Mine: The Lessons of 1623 might provide a fresh perspective on life in the Plymouth colony.
Admittedly, after all that excitement, the DVD sat shrink-wrapped and unwatched on my bookshelf for nearly a year. I came across it again a few weeks before launching a unit on early colonial life in the Americas. Hoping it could offer some compelling details about 17th-century New England, I decided to watch it. No stranger to the world of teaching materials, I prepared myself for some hackneyed but harmless reenactments and some overly brief accounts of colonial history. Nevertheless, the DVD’s description promised some “surprising facts”—such as the Pilgrims’ affinity for “colorful clothes”—so I remained vaguely optimistic. Several minutes into the film, however, I realized I was watching an unabashed ode to free-market capitalism and private property.
We begin with our young narrator, Priscilla, whose stated purpose is to debunk some common myths about the Pilgrims. As she prepares us to venture into the main storyline, she stresses that we should think of the Pilgrims not as brass-buckle-wearing religious zealots, but rather as social pioneers whose image should be conjured “every time we use our cell phone or iPods.” As if sensing my confusion, Priscilla looks into the camera with a raised eyebrow and asks, “Curious?” Not knowing where her odd digressions were taking me, I mentally replied with a cautious, “Yes.”
