I Question the Educational Value of This Assembly

Last night’s Treehouse of Horror reminded me of a mildly traumatic childhood event. Right before the Christmas break, they ran films in my elementary school—this would have been in my kindergarten and 1st years, so it would have been 1972-73. The two films they acquired were Fantastic Voyage and The Three Lives of Thomasina. The former could not have been more inappropriate. The latter, a 1964 Disney film I had all but forgotten about until now, is about a veterinarian (Patrick McGoohan) in 1912 Scotland whose daughter’s cat has a near-death experience and is “resurrected” by a woman thought to be a witch. (“Never trust a woman, even the four-legged variety,” as a later McGoohan character said.) This film gave me nightmares and probably will again. I’m not sure why they stopped the film forum or how they managed to start, either. Of course, now with DVD players ubiquitous the whole idea of a pre-Holiday film at school just seems mundane.