On Feb. 20, New York City’s Lincoln Center for Performing Arts hosted a screening of Frederick Wiseman’s 1968 documentary, “High School.” The film, which is credited as one of the first direct cinema (or cinéma vérité) documentaries, follows the lives of students and faculty at a Pennsylvania high school. Filmed and released in the 60s, the film highlights the dictator-like role the school’s faculty held over the students, and explores the abysmal results of that treatment.
The film includes no narration and compiles a bunch of everyday scenarios. However, as the film progresses, the true meaning of each conversation becomes clear: individuality. The audience watches as the students are continuously disrespected and disregarded by school faculty and their parents. The students were repeatedly forced to give up parts of themselves to conform to the school’s ideals. This treatment extends beyond the documentary’s era, as its message holds relevancy today.
The film ends with a teacher reading a letter from a former student where the student states they went on to join the military and fight in the Vietnam War. The teacher read the letter with pride, thinking it was a testament to the good work she and her colleagues had done when teaching them. Instead, it was a disturbing reminder of the dehumanizing treatment their students faced every day.
The former student was taught to conform and blindly follow orders, not to be brave or smart. In the letter, the man wrote he is just “a body with a job to do.” While at school, the boy was stripped of his individuality, freedom and self-respect. School students around the world are treated just as bodies within the educational system. They are taught to be nameless, faceless entities rather than individuals with thoughts and feelings.
The most horrific part of “High School” was not the inhumane treatment of the students, or the outright disrespect from adults, it was the satisfaction the teacher felt when reading the student’s letter. It is quite ironic that this teacher, along with all the other adults in the school, could not read between the lines, and understand what the letter implied: the school sucked the life out of that student.
This documentary serves as a critical wake-up call for all educators whose job should be to foster creativity and individuality. An educator should work to inspire students to become the best version of themselves and stand up for what they believe in, not conform to become another cog in the machine. “High School” is a revealing film that exposes the grim inner workings of the American school system.
