How should the U.S. respond to middle east turmoil? Teachers grading parents. Temple Grandin's personal look at autism. FilmWeek: The Rite, The Mechanic, When We Leave, The Housemaid, and others. TGI-FilmWeek! What films are creating a buzz at Sundance 2011?
Mideast unrest: how should the U.S. respond?
With anti-government demonstrations rippling across the Middle East, the Obama administration is weighing how to respond. Protestors in Egypt and Yemen and are seeking freedoms the US supports, but their governments are important US allies, especially with Al Qaeda active in Yemen. Should the U.S. push Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak toward reforms or bolster him in the face of Islamist opposition?
Guest:
David Meeks, national security editor for the LA Times
Teachers grading parents
A Florida legislator has introduced a bill that would require teachers to grade parents. Elementary teachers would evaluate parents based on students’ attendance, homework, test preparation, diet, and sleeping habits. The grades would appear on the kids’ report cards. Teachers have faced increased scrutiny in recent years and are assigned the primary responsibility for kids’ school achievement. Is it time to put parents on the hook too? How might school districts help tip the scales in favor of parental involvement?
Autism & life - the way Temple Grandin sees it
Most people with autism can’t communicate to the world about how it feels to suffer from this disorder, which is why the work of Temple Grandin is so important and inspirational for the autism community. One of the most well-known and accomplished adults with autism in the world, Grandin didn’t talk until she was three and half years old and when she was diagnosed her parents were told she should be institutionalized. Her book “Emergence: Labeled Autistic” stunned the world with its message of hope for those with autism at a time when most professionals and parents assumed an autism diagnosis meant a life of impassable barriers to achievement. Besides speaking and writing, Dr. Grandin designs livestock handling equipment and facilities and currently works as a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University.
Guest:
Temple Grandin, author of The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s. Her other books include Animals Make us Human, Thinking in Pictures, Animals in Translation, and Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships.
FilmWeek: The Rite, The Mechanic, When We Leave, The Housemaid and more
KPCC film critics Henry Sheehan and Tim Cogshell join Larry to review the week’s new film releases including The Rite, The Mechanic, When We Leave, The Housemaid and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Henry Sheehan, film critic for KPCC and henrysheehan.com
Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC and Box Office Magazine
Charles Solomon, film critic for KPCC, animation critic, author and historian for amazon.com
Live tweeting this week's reviews:
Sundance 2011 buzz update
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival wraps up this weekend. Which films are getting the buzz? There’s the science fiction piece Another Earth, directed by Mike Cahill, about a parallel alien world. Then there’s Kevin Smith’s Red State, a film that was panned by many critics, with Smith promising to self-distribute. There was Higher Ground, about a woman who joins a fundamentalist Christian group, and Septien, about a family that drives out its demons with the help of a preacher. What films are likely to go on to wide distribution? And were there any movies this year that are destined for film greatness?
Guests:
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Peter Rainer, film critic, KPCC and The Christian Science Monitor