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Community Corner

Grading the Movies: Murray Manor School Helps Families Pick Wisely

Also: Last day to spring for less at Murdoch fling, La Mesa Middle picks power words.

Murray Manor Elementary School wants parents to be informed about movies for the family. Among its online parent resources is a link to Kids-In-Mind, an independent website that provides movie reviews.

The reviews rate three criteria on a scale of 0 to 10: sex/nudity, violence/gore and profanity. They also include substance abuse, a list of discussion topics that may prompt kids’ questions, and the message communicated by the film.

Best Picture Winner The King’s Speech seems safe enough when it comes to sex/nudity and violence/gore. Each of those two categories received a 1. Profanity, on the other hand, got a 6 for “[a]bout 12 F-words, 1 sexual reference, 12 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, exclamations (bloody), name-calling (coward, egg-head, peculiar, buggars, mad, bravery), 1 religious exclamation.”

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Black Swan, on the other hand received 8’s for sex/nudity and violence/gore, and a 6 for profanity. Looks like The King’s Speech bested the Natalie Portman project in the family friendly arena as well. That said, the message Kids-In-Mind drew from Black Swan at least inspires a smile: “Striving for perfection can cause overwhelming stress and lead to insanity.”

SPRING FLING FOR MURDOCK SCHOOL: Today marks the deadline for $25 early bird tickets to Murdock Elementary School’s seasonal fundraiser, Spring Fling. After today (Tuesday), tickets are $30 each. The PTA-run drive is an adult event held at the La Mesa Community Center with a live and silent auction, dancing and adult refreshments.

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The fundraiser swoops in to save programs that would have flown the coop as a result of budget cuts. Items on the saved list include bus transportation for field trips, classroom paper, classroom technology for teachers and a new weekly music program for all students.

Anyone with questions can contact event chairs Tania Doggett and Lauren Smeenge at springfling@murdockpta.org.

POWERFUL SPEECH: La Mesa Middle School recommends parents help their children practice 12 words: describe, summarize, support, predict, infer, explain, formulate, analyze, compare, contrast, evaluate and trace.

According to the school website, all students should know the aforementioned “powerful” words. Although Town Pulse supports La Mesa Middle’s choices, it would be nice for the school to describe the steps that led them to select these words. Before properly analyzing and then evaluating the usefulness of the words, further explanation would be appreciated.

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