The New York Times calls it “a shocking chronicle of institutional dysfunction.” Variety describes it as “a wake-up call about appalling conditions” in American schools. The Political Film Society asks, “why the disinterest in the rights of children in the United States?”

“The War on Kids” is an award-winning documentary film released by Spectacle Films in 2009. This documentary was directed by Cevin Soling and won an award for best educational documentary at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

Filmed at schools in Tennessee, New Jersey, Florida, California, and South Carolina, “The War on Kids” depicts public schools as authoritarian institutions that cannot be reformed. The film discloses how American students are subjected to invasive control in the school system. The film, in fact, compares the educational system to prison and its methods of order and discipline to fascism.

The thought-provoking documentary suggests an educational system where fear is the regulator and control is the major motivator. Tracing the history of zero-tolerance policies on drugs and violence, the film concentrates on middle-class schools rather than inner city school districts. Soling, the film’s director, produces significant evidence of overreaction in American schools.

“The War on Kids” features several chapters or “lesson” segments, along with alarming news reports and emotional interviews. Educators, writers, administrators, students, and health experts advise Americans about the possible fall-out of extreme paranoia in the school system. Today’s students are stifled by locked-down libraries and classrooms, surveillance cameras, drug-sniffing dogs, metal detectors, and armed guards on a daily basis. The sickening result is diminishing democratic values and education progress in schools.

The documentary also takes a look at a particular irony in American schools. At the same time schools are treating students like criminals to shield them from drug addiction, major drug companies are feeding children dangerous, mood-altering pharmaceuticals like Ritalin – with the willing help of parents, school administrators, and doctors.

According to the Political Film Society, two countries have yet to ratify a Convention on children’s rights–Somalia and the United States. They show that the media has pointed its lens on the torture of a handful of suspected Islamic terrorists to the neglect of hundreds of students abused, interrogated, and incarcerated in the schools. In addition, they believe the “No Child Left Behind” law actually retards educational outcomes and stifles the joy of learning.

Even though “The War on Kids” doesn’t present a clear solution for the myriad of problems in the public school system, it does advocate home schooling as a feasible alternative. The films may lead some viewers to decide that the only real answer is the reconstruction of America’s public school system.