Edited for Content

One thing I do a lot as a sub is to play videos for classes.

Yesterday, I covered a 7th grade history class. The teacher left them a movie. It was sort of related to what they were studying, but it was more for fun than for study. It was rated PG-13.

The students were so excited when they saw the rating. They thought they were going to see something they shouldn't.

The teacher has an interesting DVD player. It's a ClearPlay device. It filters out all the objectionable bits. When the students claimed that I should select the non-filtered play, I knew to ignore them. (I wonder if they ever get away with that.)

All day, I heard students complain. "My mom lets me say that at home." Well, great. You shouldn't have to hear it at school.

Then, in 6th period, I got a surprise. After the rating flashed, one girl came up to talk to me. She didn't think she should remain in class for a movie with a PG-13 rating. She didn't want to see anything that showed blood.

At that point I had seen the first 50 minutes of the movie four times (plus I had seen the whole movie before), and I knew there was nothing that the girl needed to be concerned about. I explained what she would see, and I also assured her that the objectionable bits had been filtered.

(If I had had any worries on this score, I would have let her go to another room. I won't keep a student in class when they have those kinds of concerns.)

She stayed in class. After, I asked her if she had seen anything that she found objectionable. She said no.

I'm glad the filtering did its job.