TV Reviews : Kids Point to a Hopeful Future in ‘Dream Contest’
The headlines may be bleak, but children still have hopes for a brighter future. That’s the message in the 12 colorful mini-films that make up “The American Dream Contest,†airing on KTLA Channel 5 Sunday at 8 p.m.
The films were inspired by ideas sent in from all 50 states by children ages 9 to 17 about what dreams “American kids have about themselves and their country.â€
A 10-year-old takes Mikhail Gorbachev on a tour of his favorite places, from Mt. Rushmore to miniature golf. Four fourth-graders effortlessly crumble the wall of racial and ethnic prejudice. A boy meets the man (Gavin MacLeod) he will become in the 21st Century. An Asian teen-ager, to whom education is a joy, eloquently remembers the terror of her life in Vietnam.
Produced with effective simplicity by Arnold Shapiro and narrated by Michael Landon, this is the third in Shapiro’s superb five-part series “Raising Good Kids in Bad Times.†(Previous segments were “See Dick and Jane Lie, Cheat and Steal: Teaching Morality to Kids†and “The Truth About Teachers.â€)
Environmental, political and societal problems may be overwhelming to adults, but children, unencumbered with their elders’ frames of reference, see to the heart of an issue with ease.
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