I've seen some of the short films contained in the Educational Archives sets and those seem to be a little before my time. However, I do recall seeing some educational and moral/life lesson films throughout my school years which seemed to be made in the 70s/80s. Some were on reel to reel projector while others were on VHS. Topics ranged from science & history to health & safety. While some were admittedly bad (and heavy handed), some had great animation and were quite informative.

Still others focused on life issues such as teamwork, honesty, drunk driving, teen suicide, drugs, alcoholic parents, etc. These were almost more like after school specials or TV movies. Although, they'd probably be too sappy/corny for words nowadays, at the time they were sometimes interesting and, on rare occasion, engaging. One that I vaguely recall dealing with teen suicide was called Silence of the Heart.

Anyone have any memories (fond or not) of educational and/or life lesson films that you were shown in school?

Again, these are not to be confused with mainstream movies that you were shown in school, perhaps as reward or if it was raining during recess, which are covered quite well in this thread: What movies did you watch at school? (Elementary/High school)

I have a ton of these from the 40s-70s, but I haven't managed to track down any of the ones I was shown in the 80s and early 90s.

All I can remember is some movie where this girl was bulimic, and would throw up in jars, store them in her closet, and then dispose of them in a river. Mom found found her vomit stash, and then it was lesson time.

all I remember was some film about not throwing rocks over highway bypasses.

Uncle Smiley: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1320026

(That's about the most information I could find about them)

That one about the robot Grandma...

I went to public school in Utah, so I got films about what to do if I encounter a non-Mormon or a minority. I learned that they are people too, and should be treated with respect and dignity!

I remember one in 10th grade biology called hemoglobin that was animated.

Wasn't that a Twilight Zone episode?

Does the Lorax count? I think we watched that once a year for a stretch of 3 or 4 years.

Do movies shown in Driver's Ed class count? Man, those were some rough life lessons. I still can't hear Diana Ross's 'Theme from Mahogany' without thinking of severed heads and limbs on a rain-slicked highway.

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I used to love the ones from health class where kids started using and taking drugs. Sometimes you have to wonder if the people who made it had any idea what happens in the real world. I remember one had a kid dealing coke from the front door of his nice suburban house, while his parents were home.

One that actually worked on me was about chewing tobacco. It featured a baseball player that had half of his face removed, just a horrible sight. Because of that video I have never touched the stuff (one of the only things I never tried).

All I remember are the science ones with Richard Carlson and the professor guy who introduces The Mole People movie. Had a lot of Disney type animation.

We were shown a movie called 'Threads' when I was in high school. Very thought provoking.

^ what was the US tv show that was similiar in nature. I remember 'Threads' being alot more graphic in terms of the mass depiction of radiation death.

The Day After I think. It was showed in school too, but it was a little too early for me.

Threads messed my head heh.

We used to see some of this type of stuff in school growing up, but I don't recall too many specifics. I remember seeing a film in 10th grade biology class about boy-girl relations, but it wasn't quite a sex education film. (It was around ten years old at that point.) The "raciest" thing it showed was a boy sweating under his armpits when he called up a girl in his class. It got a little racier after the film when we talked about it in class and I asked the male teacher to explain something to me. What made a penis hard during an erection? Blood rushing to it, was the answer. Oh. Hey, I didn't know that. Who was I gonna ask? My parents?

To blend the Disney and driver's ed themes, I even recall a Disney animated film that was shown called, Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? narrarated by Kurt Russell!

LOL. If only Dr. Ruth had been my elementary or junior high teacher, what a different (and more productive) adolescence I might have had.

That's the Bell Science series, which I think were made in the mid to late '50s. I think Arminius might have been referring to one of them (Hemo the Magnificent) in his post.

I saw many of these in grade school in the mid '60s. I loved watching them and not just because we got out of class to see them. I've now got a three of them on DVD and, while dated, they are still entertainingly educational.

I remember watching some Disney adolescent "instructional" video in 5th grade, which was hilarious to me at the time. And one where it was a conversational Q and A with a panel of boys and one with girls asking questions. Then there were the generic Bill Nye the Science guy tapes with episodes from the show, but nothing unique to the classroom.

I think around the 90's, things changed from videos to demonstrations/motivational speakers; instead of films on drugs, we had a cop show us PCP vials in elementary school with a McDonalds' sponsored Robot, Officer Mac. In high school, there were tons of motivational speakers, guys talking about knowing drug addicts or having cancer.

Thanks for this info. When I saw this thread, this is the one that came to mind for me. Glad to know it's available on DVD.

There was one with Tom Bosley and Marion Ross (Mr. & Mrs. Cunningham) about the dangers of smoking. Oddly, it took place in the Brady Bunch house. And it had a laugh track.