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O Connor's Four Frameworks

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Film is one of the historian's most effective teaching tools. O’Connor hypothesized that “within ten years all students would learn their history lessons by watching movies rather than by reading a book.” Films may be captivating, but true information should be obtained from primary documents. Primary documents can provide vivid cultural and social backgrounds that cannot be obtained through readings and lectures. Motion pictures can make powerful arguments about historical interpretation promoting beneficial classroom debates. Today’s population is more accustomed to visually based information rather than written documents because they find historical documents difficult to interpret. .
As with any implementation of new information, films …show more content…

The modern student watches and listens for entertainment purposes only, never taking a look at another perspective of the story. In O’Connor’s two stages and four frameworks, he explains that “students should be taught how to question the images they see on the screen, just as they are urged to look for loaded words or phrases in a book or newspaper.” Students’ learning and interaction is what we as educators or historians are trying to teach, that questioning is needed for a deeper understanding of history and to not repeat the …show more content…

With the enthusiastic backing of the Office of War Information, also known as the OWI, the film spent a lot of time showing Woodrow Wilson as a loving Father and husband who had great difficulty getting over the death of his first wife Ellen Axson. The White House courtship of Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling was very important, even though such a relationship might cost him his re-election, because Woodrow Wilson was a man who needed the love of a good woman. No matter how hard they humanize Woodrow Wilson, these romantic sparks in the film for their White House courtship still seemed cold. When Edith edged toward Woodrow Wilson, “there were no romantic sparks in their White House courtship. The president’s romantic overtures were not unlike his arch and convoluted diplomatic notes. And whenever she edged toward him, he backed against a pillar. Perhaps Hollywood thought showing a president in physical contact—even holding hands—with his betrothed transgressed the bounds of good

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