I posted about this 20-minute film last year, but I came across this article (thank you Melissa) finally giving it some recognition.

The thick-lined drawings of the Earth, a factory and a house, meant to convey the cycle of human consumption, are straightforward and child-friendly. So are the pictures of dark puffs of factory smoke and an outlined skull and crossbones, representing polluting chemicals floating in the air.

Which is one reason “The Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video about the effects of human consumption, has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation.

I’ve used this in my classrooms in the past with much success. Even the kids that don’t like it allowed us to have some great discussions. I’m glad she is writing a book based on the film, which will allow her to go into greater detail.

It’s clear other teachers have experience success too. This part is pretty cool.

Mr. Lukach’s students made a response video and posted it on YouTube, asking Ms. Leonard to scare them less and give them ideas on how to make things better. That in turn inspired high school students in Mendocino, Calif., to post an answer to Woodside, with suggested activities.

But…of course some parents don’t want their kid “brainwashed.”

But Mark Zuber, a parent of a child at Big Sky High School in Missoula, had a stronger reaction when a teacher showed the video to his daughter last year. “There was not one positive thing about capitalism in the whole thing,” Mr. Zuber said.

Note that the film does not mention capitalism at all, which was actually one of my critiques of it. It talks about consumption and consumerism, but what we’re really talking about is capitalism. He goes on…

Corporations, for example, are portrayed as a bloated person sporting a top hat and with a dollar sign etched on its front. He described the video as one-sided. “It was very well done, very effective advocacy, but it was just that,” he said.

right…I’d love to hear a suggestion on how corporations should look if they’re personified.

Mr. Zuber argued before the Missoula County School Board that the way in which “The Story of Stuff” was presented, without an alternative point of view, violated its standards on bias, and the board agreed in a 4-to-3 vote.

She explained the way raw material move through the system of production, consumption, and trash. What is the alternate point of view here? That people and the land aren’t exploited for raw materials? That flowers come out of smokestacks? That nobody is being poisoned? That e-waste is fictional? Good luck with that.

story of stuff