Sunday, April 26, 2009

When social conservatives can be helpful …

I’m not a fan of American pseudo-Christian marketarian fundamentalism. I do, however, sympathize with many of the priorities of parents who would call themselves social conservatives.

For example, we use their home schooling materials when our usually good but occasionally whacky public school fads fail our kids. We also appreciate their media reviews.

Consider Common Sense Media. They come across as pretty neutral, but I still suspect a social conservative undercurrent there. Where else, however, could I get a review like this one …

Hotel for Dogs Rating and Review For Kids and Families | Common Sense Media

… I work as an advocate for children who are coming from homes of Domestic Violence and I often take children to the movies when there is no school. After viewing the trailer the children decided it would be a fun movie to see (ages 8 & 12). I took them thinking it would be a silly pointless movie, only to find it was full of things that are all to real in my line of work. The children I had taken to the movies were recently removed from their mother and placed with grandparents, but have easily been those kids on the screen. I think the movie would have been great for "normal" happy children, but I wish somewhere in the previews I would have known the plot....now I know to check this site…

Exactly. By some miraculous intervention our #3 child (adopted) missed seeing this movie today. So, chances are, she won’t need emergency counseling. #2 (also adopted) was delighted by the film and appeared unfazed by a high-intensity emotional stress test for children with a history of personal tragedy. #1 is harder to read, I’ll have to watch how he does with it.

It’s not a bad film, even though they sure do yank the old adoption/abandonment levers that movie makers live for. It’s just a very tricky film for children with certain histories.

You don’t get that from typical movie review sites, but CSM has the key information.

Next time we’ll check CSM before we go.

No comments: