Learning Guide for Babies

Learning Guide for Babies

Subjects: Diversity; Health; Life Skills; world cultures;

Social Emotional Learning: Family;

Moral Ethical Emphasis: Caring; Tolerance;

Ages: All; MPAA Rating PG for baby and maternal nudity;

Documentary: 2010; 79 minutes; Available for Amazon.com

Director: Thomas Balmes

Description: Babies is a nonfiction look at a year in the lives of four culturally different babies, one born in the bustling city of Tokyo, one in rural Mongolia, one in the desert region of Namibia, and one in San Francisco. Masterfully filmed, director Thomas Balmes recorded the lives of these babies over a period of 400 days and edited his footage to reveal the interconnectedness of the human experience. For 79 minutes, babies do what babies do: they get born, fed, bathed, cry, play, learn to sit, crawl and walk, and begin to explore their worlds.

Benefits of the Movie: Nonfiction has become an increasingly important tool for educators and film can introduce the idea that even in a documentary a story exists that reveals both information and ideas. Cultural differences in parenting and life styles are shown with respect and free of judgment. Students will be able to exercise research and writing skills, including exposition, narration and argumentation, stemming from a subject that is entertaining as well as informative.

Possible Problems: None

Parenting Points: The simple beauty of this film is readily assessable to viewers of all age. Enjoy the film along with your child.

Directions for Use in the Classroom: Show the film without an introduction. Should you deliver the information provided in the introduction above, many students will moan, thinking this film will be an anthropological discourse on child rearing; let them discover for themselves the intent of the film.

Discussion Questions – for Middle School and High School

These questions can be simplified depending on age and sophistication of the class.

At the end of the film, engage the students in discussion using the following questions:

1. Which scenes in this film most clearly indicates the interconnectedness, the similarity in, all human behavior? Suggested response: Students cannot be wrong in their responses as long as they assert their points with clarity and directly cite scenes from the experiences of the four babies.

2. Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority or at least the centrality on one’s culture. Can you find any scenes in the film that cause you to respond with what may be an ethnocentric viewpoint? Suggested response: Students cannot be wrong in their opinions but they must argue their points and cite specific scenes. Some students may assert that there are scenes in which a baby is unnecessarily exposed to danger, for example a scene with animals, and that these care-taking practices are not proper in American culture.

3. Which setting, family life style or maternal practice most clearly causes you to identify or empathize with the feelings generated? Suggested response: All answers will be acceptable as long as students support their responses.

Assignments and Assessments: Using the rubrics and standards to which your students have grown familiar, assign any of the following: (You may want to use this opportunity to have students read their essays aloud to the class and thus to share opinions. Select the best readers, the better of the papers, or volunteers, as is your standard. Arguments may be generated and this is always good.

1. Ask students to do a search on the internet to find one childrearing practice from a culture not represented in the film and share that practice with the rest of the class. An example of such a child rearing practice is “age villages” in some African tribes or the Kibbutz system in Israel.

2. Narrate, that is, write in story form with description and dialogue, an experience within your family or culture that can be called a “child rearing practice.” For example, should you have a young brother or sister that attends day-care or stays home with extended family members, you have a “child-rearing practice.”

3. Write a compare/contrast essay that looks at one aspect of experience shared by all four babies in the film.

4. Write an essay in which you assert your opinion about how geography is the most important factor in creating the variety of baby rearing practices you see in the film. Refer directly to specific scenes and argue your point with conviction and clarity.

5. Write an opinion essay about which of the four babies is being raised in the most beneficial environment. Insert into this essay your best guess about how each baby’s life may progress. Watch out to avoid ethnocentrism as much as possible.