Mental and Spiritual
I grew up in Florida. Even though I had a Bahá’í family, the Fast was so difficult for me when I first tried it at fifteen. No one at my school knew about the Bahá’í Faith and fasting made me stand out from everyone.
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
Claudette Colvin demonstrates how a teenager had the will and strength to stand up for justice. Most people know about Rosa Parks’s refusal to give her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Most people don’t know that Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old, did the same thing nine months earlier.
Freedom Writers
Freedom Writers illustrates how one person’s selflessness and determination can allow many people to overcome the limitations of prejudice and ignorance. This movie is set in 1994, two years after Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California started a voluntary integration program.
Remember The Titans
Remember The Titans shows that when people unite for a common goal, it is easier to see how our differences make us stronger. Sports require everyone on a team to cooperate for a single goal. The movie is based on actual events at a newly desegregated high school in 1971.
The Help
The Help illustrates how one person can reject social norms and change the world around them. It uses humor to approach racial prejudice in Mississippi in 1963. Eugenia Phalen, known as “Skeeter,” returns home after going to college for journalism.
The Spectacular Now
The Spectabular Now illustrates how it is easier not to start a bad habit than it is to stop a bad habit. Sutter Keely, a high school senior, has a seemingly perfect life. He is popular, confident and has a job he likes.
Augusta, Gone
Augusta, Gone shows how drugs and alcohol do not fix problems but create new problems. Augusta, a teenage girl, lives with her younger brother and single mother.
Wounds of the Father
Wounds of the Father is a powerful memoir that shows how drugs and alcohol are dangerous substitutes for what we lack in our lives. Elizabeth Garrison’s life seemed perfect from a distance, but she experienced a difficult childhood dealing with teenage drug addiction and overcoming sexual abuse.
Positive: A Memoir
Positive shows how to confront being bullied and support victims of bullying so that you can be a source of unity. People are bullied about almost anything, and this often includes things they can’t control: name, appearance, abilities, or even a disease they have.
Finding Your True North
Finding Your True North reveals how destructive bulling can be. Bahá’í principles direct us to strive to be a source of hope and unity, not of sadness and disunity. One out of four students is bullied every day in the United States.