How Do You Learn If You Aren't in School?

Close your mathematics books, boys and girls. Save the grammar exercise and the chemistry lab for tomorrow. It's time to grab Mom and Dad away from their jobs so you can all receive a real educational lesson at the local theater.

At least that's what Harvard lecturer Spike Lee wants you to do.

Lee, one of the world's most influential filmmakers, has asked that Blacks boycott work and school to attend today's long-anticipated opening of his new movie, Malcolm X. But that request lacks rhyme or reason and preaches the wrong values to the very audience Lee is targeting.

To set the record straight, I think it's great that Lee Completed this $35 million undertaking. All Americans should learn more about Malcolm X, the man who was such an important figure in battling the blaring racial inequalities that flood the modern social history of our nation. The resurrection of this leader also comes at a time when our race relations still are in need of much improvement--as seen by the L.A. police incident with Rodney King and the riots that followed in Los Angeles.

For precisely these reasons, I spent some time this summer reading Malcolm X's autobiography (as told to Alex Haley). To be honest, I didn't even know that Lee was working on the movie when I read the book. I now look forward to seeing the film, but I will pay $6.75 with mixed emotions. How can this man, now idolized by so many children, deliver a message that it's OK to miss school and see a movie?

Lee, who had to borrow megabucks from Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey and Eddie Murphy to produce the movie, is doing whatever he can to promote his epic. Furthermore, I doubt that Malcolm X, who educated himself by reading hundreds of books during his years in prison, would want children to skip school to see the movie.

Here's a question: Will children learn anything less about Malcolm X if they pass on the movie this afternoon and wait to see it until 7 o'clock tonight or a Saturday matinee? Probably not.

And another: Will many of the children who see the movie today consider their day away from teachers and blackboards as an "educational experience," instead of a one day escape that legitimizes playing hooky? Probably not. Kids are Kids.

While Lee is sending the wrong message to the children, what about all of those adult workers whom he is asking to do the same thing? There will probably be a number of people lying and calling in "sick" today. That will do wonders for honesty and ethics.

Perhaps Billy Crystal said it best in a visit to Harvard last September, when a student asked the star if he would like to join Lee at Harvard with a teaching post. After responding that he wouldn't know what to teach, Crystal mocked Lee's request for the boycott. Crystal, who is Jewish, joked that when his next movie comes out, "I'm going to ask everyone to stay home on Rosh Hashana."

On another level, Harvard University should be embarrassed by Lee's request that children skip school for a day. President Neil L. Rudenstine et al gave him a teaching position, placing him in a position to set an example as an educator. The nation has enough problems with the educational system as it is, and this incident can only hurt the situation--even if the movie is "educational."

If this high-profile lecturer truly believes it's so important for kids to see the film right away, why didn't he arrange for some special discounts or free screenings today in the schools?

But even watching the film does not ensure an educational experience for Americans. Entertainment is entertainment. And Lee's movie, while a historical epic, is still entertainment--and it has to be, for there are many people who will quarrel with Lee's version of history.

When confronted about his original statement, Lee maintains that he was misquoted in the first place because he never said students should "cut school." But his defense isn't that convincing to me.

"What I said this past August to the National Association of Black Journalists in Detroit was that it would be really great if parents could take their children out of school and see this film as intact black families," Lee told The Boston Globe.

Does it really matter if students "play hooky" or have their parents pull them out of class? When it comes down to it, Lee's request is nothing more than a publicity stunt to help the figures at the box office--and to boost his ego. This only detracts from Lee's more important project--to have Americans learn more about Malcolm X and his important role in American history.

I don't think you will find me in a movie theater this afternoon. I will be attending a couple of lectures. And my "intact" family is planning to see Malcolm X together when I go home for Thanksgiving next week.

Jonathan Samuels '94 is an editor of The Crimson