Documentary about Early Childhood Education, "No Small Matter", to be Presented September 12, 2019
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The Growing Tree, Corrine’s Little Explorers, and Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA) invite you to attend our free public screening of No Small Matter on Thursday, September 12, 2019, starting at 6:00 p.m., followed by a panel discussion at about 7:15 p.m. The screening will be at The Growing Tree, 11 13th Avenue in New Glarus. We will have free pizza and drinks available, along with free child care on-site.
No Small Matter is the first feature documentary to explore the most overlooked, underestimated, and powerful force for good in America today: early childhood education. Through poignant stories and surprising humor, the film lays out the overwhelming evidence for the importance of the first five years, and reveals how our failure to act on that evidence has resulted in an everyday crisis for American families, and a slow-motion catastrophe for the country.
No Small Matter is built from stories of real children, families, and teachers, illustrating the impact of high-quality early childhood experiences. We meet parents who are struggling to do their best for their kids, incredible teachers who model what early childhood classrooms should and could be like, and children learning and developing in real time. These positive, hopeful stories serve as motivational tools in both the film and the No Small Matter campaign: Change is necessary, critical, and attainable if we put our minds to it.
The film is also firmly grounded in science, opening up the “black box” of what’s happening inside children’s brains with exciting, stimulating animation and the voices of compelling scientists, physicians, and ECE experts. Using findings from message framing reports (Frameworks Institute), behavioral economists such as James Heckman, and the latest research in brain imaging and child development, we break down complicated scientific details into layman’s terms, demystifying prevailing ideas that hinder our thinking about children’s behavior, and paving the way for us all to see what children need more clearly. When it comes to understanding the incredible dynamism of how a child’s mind develops, seeing is believing — from firing neurons to still face experiments — and these illustrations drive home the critical nature of these early years.
Most important of all, the facts and figures in the film must stick with the viewer and drive them to act. From celebrity parent cameos to the “marshmallow test” with Cookie Monster to hilarious moments with the children we meet along the way — all will help No Small Matter move the viewer in ways that a fact sheet simply cannot.
