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Education Minister Assigns More Movie-Watching
Education Minister Jaak Aaviksoo argues that films should be added to university students' compulsory reading list.
"Looking to the younger generation, they read fewer books," Aaviksoo, a former University of Tartu rector, told online news forum Delfi. "But in today's world [...] communication goes far beyond the printed text."
The minister added that while ignorance of Estonian literary classics like Oskar Luts's "Kevade" ("Spring") or Anton Hansen Tammsaare's "Tõde ja Õigus" ("Truth and Justice") has been traditionally seen as an educational failing, the same could be said today of someone not being familiar with cinematic greats.
"There are many films in the modern world without which it's very difficult to understand the world," he said.
Aaviksoo's weekend interview already struck a nerve. Yesterday, writer Jan Kaus in a Delfi op-ed piece urged for a more nuanced approach to education, discouraging an either/or view on the question.
"[T]he mark of a creative approach [to teaching] is to combine film with the teaching of literature," writes Kaus. "Such a parallel and comparative study applies to a number of classic cinematic works."
"[T]he mark of a creative approach [to teaching] is to combine film with the teaching of literature," writes Kaus. "Such a parallel and comparative study applies to a number of classic cinematic works."
Kaus pointed to the study of Andrei Tarkovsky's classic film "Solaris" and Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up". He argued that, since both films are based on novels, any in-depth study of these works demands a reading of both novel and film.
Andres Kahar