A dear grandma friend took her three oldest grandchildren to see the movie, “Hidden Figures.” She told me that all three, including the youngest at eight, understood that there were two groups shown to be prejudiced against in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Blacks and women. Yes, my grandma friend’s grandchildren are brilliant children, but this shows us that we can expose our grandchildren early to the reality in life that some people are not treated equally. This knowledge can build character and empathy and understanding even in our early school age grandchildren. We grandmas can open our grandchildren’s eyes to the world around them, the good and sometimes the bad.
Hidden Figures tells the inspiring true story of extremely qualified and undervalued Black women at NASA. This Grandma loved the movie, as did my grandma friend and the grandchildren. Wait until the credits and do not miss the pictures of the real women and what has happened to them.
I, like my grandma friend, thought that the movie was rated G. It is rated PG. I went to my go-to website for media reviews for children, and looked up the movie and what brought the rating to PG. The movie contains slight language, sex, and smoking and drinking. In the movie, what is PG is so indicative of that era where most smoked. It does give us something more to discuss with our grandchildren, how the increase in knowledge over the decades about the harmful medical effects of smoking has lead to the decrease in Americans smoking.
One of the grandchildren mentioned about women learning math and how there were mostly men working at NASA in the movie. She questioned that she had never learned about these women in school and why not. For older grandchildren, this could lead to a discussion as to why some information is not included in their school books or taught in school or girls are not encouraged to gain proficiency in some areas. For the parents of our grandchildren, this could lead to a discussion that they may want to pay attention to their school board member elections and who represents them to purchase school books and develop the curriculum that affects their children’s learning.
The movie is listed on Common Sense media as for age ten and up. Remember, the parents of our grandchildren find this resource to be very conservative. Consider that an eight year old, and admittedly a bright and mature eight year old, loved the movie and understood how prejudice against women and minorities was wrong, widespread in that era, and is not acceptable, then or today.
However, there are more discussions to have with the grandchildren to gain insight into the movie and what we can learn from it.
We can learn more about the real women who are the subject of the movie.
Katherine Johnson. Called the “human computer,” a building at Langley (NASA) is named for her.
Learn about the early space program.
We can introduce our grandchildren to non fiction books about real people of every walk of life. See prior posts:
February is Black History Month in the United States. On this website, learn about the history of Black History Month, read biographies of famous Black Americans, try quizzes and crosswords, find statistics and facts about Black Americans, and more to do with your grandchildren.
Finally, as clearly set forth on Common Sense Media about the movie, “Hidden Figures,” “learn[ing] a lot about these pioneering women and what they had to overcome to make their mark at NASA. . . .[makes them] excellent role models, and their story is full of positive messages and themes.” This is an “out of this world” opportunity for our grandchildren learn new vocabulary words and discuss how they apply to these real accomplished women and the characteristics presented in this wonderful movie. Just use the newspaper questions, “what, where, why, when and how,” especially “how” can the word apply to the grandchild’s life.
prejudice: an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough knowledge or information
perseverance: not giving up, the effort required to do something and keep doing it till the end, even if it’s hard
empathy: the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s circumstances
humility: not thinking you are better than other people, being humble
integrity: always being honest and fair
teamwork: people working well and trying their best together for the same goal
communication: people’s successful exchange of thoughts, messages, or information to one another
And, hopefully, the movie’s teaching of positive core moral values will become part of our grandchildren and apply in our grandchildren’s lives and achievements, as well.
Joy,
Mema
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