The 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave is to be distributed, along with the actual memoir that it is based on to high schools nationwide in an effort to be used an educational tool in history classes.

12 Years a Slave is a historical film based on the memoir written by Solomon Northup, a freed black, who recounts of his story of being kidnapped into slavery.

History teacher, Joel Jepson finds the initiative to be a great start in learning about slavery and its impacts.

“[It’s an] outstanding idea,” Jepson said. “Teachers are always looking for different ways of presenting material. 

Especially in tough times, any other resources that would be helping to explain and further detail the experience of slaves and truly capture the emotions attached to it, would help teachers and students tremendously, if it was to be applied to school.

The idea of this movie and memoir being implemented in schools has long been an idea for the writer and director of 12 Years a Slave, and is seen as a great resource for learning.

“I’ve heard and seen a couple interviews with the writer, a very impressive guy, seeing 12 Years a Slave as a teaching tool,” Jepson said.

“[It] depends on the sources, how its done, [but it] sounds like this is a good idea with good intentions.”

Since the movie directors and writers took many steps in order to maintain historical accuracy and integrity to the actual memoir, students will be able to learn about slavery at a greater level, viewing the history of slavery from a slave himself. 

“I know students who went to see it affected them in a positive way, teaching them about the past,” Jepson said.

Junior Rana Abouelhagag feels that the movie would be a good way of getting background knowledge on this topic. 

“Although there are graphic scenes that perhaps may be inappropriate, the overall content of the movie helps to bring awareness to what the U.S. was like when slavery was a legal institution,” said Abouelhagag.

There have been countless reviews detailing the expressiveness, accuracy and how there is so much to learn through the movie, and the students also see this as a great learning opportunity.

With the effect taking place in public schools, classes would be able to take on a new standard in learning and effectively change the way in which students learn.