Spielberg's Epic 'Lincoln' to Go to All Middle Schools

Every middle and high school in the country will receive DVD copies of Steven Spielberg's historical epic "Lincoln" as part of a "social action campaign," the film's distributors announced today.

Each school will receive a DVD package compiled by Disney Educational Productions that includes a teacher's guide for spurring discussion among students and lesson plans relating to Abraham Lincoln's leadership and the significance of that period of U.S. history.

"Before the film was released, we engaged Penn Schoen Berland to conduct a research study to help inform the focus of our Social Action campaign for 'Lincoln,' " Participant Media CEO Jim Berk said. "Among the findings of the study was that more than half of Americans think it's important to learn about Lincoln, but two-thirds say they know little to nothing about him. While I'm sure that's changed thanks to the tremendous popularity of the film and all the surrounding attention, it still clearly indicated the need to better educate our students about the 16th president's accomplishments."

Spielberg said that, after the film was released, the producers received letters from teachers about making it available in classrooms.

"We realized that the educational value that 'Lincoln' could have was not only for the adult audiences, who have studied his life in history books, but for the young students in the classroom as well," he said.

- City News Service