Search - Families of Ghana (Families of the World) on DVD

Good for classroom use.

J. Hall | Oklahoma City, OK USA | 10/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This Ghana program is part of a series on many different countries. In each program, there are two segments (about 15 minutes each) showing two different famlies of the country: one urban and one rural. Each segment is narrated by a child of that family. The children narrating the series range in age from 5 to 11 (in the ones I've seen). The Ghana program is narrated by an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. Overall, I think it's a very good series. I use several of the programs in my 7th grade world geography classroom.

My only concern about this series is that the families chosen are not economically representative of their countries. This gives viewers a skewed idea of what like is like for the average person in the various countries. If you compare the belongings and lifestyles of these families with those shown in the book/CD "Material World," you will see how well off these families are, compared to others in their country. They tend to be upper middle class (by their relative countries' standards).

But in the Ghana DVD, even the relatively wealthy famiy of the countryside was faced with challenges that got my attention. The rural family had no electricity, no running water, slept on mats on the floor, and lived in what appeared to me to be very primitive living conditions. But I could tell they were relatively well-off because they could afford the uniforms for school (including shoes) which some other kids could not; dad runs his own trucking company and has employees; dad also owns the property/compound shown in the program as well as a "house at the farm" where his other wife and kids live; they had plenty to eat throughout the day.

By comparison, the urban family has a fairly cushy life. It was interesting that in this program neither family has "hired help" in the home (as they do in several other programs). As a matter of fact, the kids in the urban family complain briefly that they wish their parents would hire a maid and a gardener.

This series has won a lot of awards, and rightly so. I find it very good for classroom use.

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