Untitled Document

The Making of a Mind

Filmmakers use Pittsburg High to help illustrate children's educational development

By KATIE STOCKSTILL
Morning Sun Staff Writer

During the past two weeks, 12 Pittsburg High School students have been documented, researched and filmed as part of an early-childhood study entitled "Mind in the Making," which will air on the Discovery Health Channel in late winter 2006.

Thanks to a local connection, Pittsburg High School was chosen as the only high school in the nation to be featured in the upcoming documentary.

Hank O'Karma, of New Screen Concepts, says they chose Pittsburg because of its location and its ethnic and socio-economic mix.

"We decided we wanted some place in the Midwest and I said, 'what about Kansas?'" O'Karma said.

O'Karma and Victor Zimet are co-producing the documentary, which will mix traditional early-childhood studies with the footage shot of the 12 PHS seniors.

"This is a compelling way of telling a story," O'Karma said. "We're gonna show what happens 18 years later and constantly go back and forth between the two."

To acquire the footage they needed, O'Karma and his crew have spent the past two weeks in Pittsburg filming school classes and events and working with the families of the 12 featured students.

To gain a better understanding of their past and their current interests, O'Karma says they have interviewed the students and looked at their life as a child and their life today.

"We ask them questions like, 'how do you feel about learning now? Are you engaged with learning? What are your passions,'" O'Karma said.

Julie Scorse is one of the 12 documented students at PHS. Scorse says it took a little time getting used to the cameras, but she says she has adjusted.

During the past two weeks, O'Karma has looked at Scorse, both her past and present.

"It's been a pretty good mix of both," Scorse said. "He bases it off of my childhood and then he always comes back to what I am doing now."

O'Karma says his research aims to look at the other characteristics that kids need to learn and be able to be productive after high school and compare those characteristics to the three R's: Reading, writing and arithmetic.

For Scorse, O'Karma focused on her relationship with her grandmother.

"The other day he went out ... to my grandma's house with me," Scorse said. "They filmed me with my grandma. They had me and my grandma read together."

The final assignment for O'Karma and his crew will be the PHS graduation, this Sunday. O'Karma said they chose to wait this late in the school year because graduation typically symbolizes a major point in people's lives, and for some, the end of their formal schooling.

"It isn't just about early childhood," O'Karma said. "It's about the end result."

PHS principal, Mike Philpot, said O'Karma and his crew have been at the school for about two weeks and their work has been very non-invasive.

"It's been a good experience," Philpot said. "They said they have really enjoyed being here."

O'Karma says that through it all, he is just trying to provide another perspective into early-childhood research and 'tell the Pittsburg story.'

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) May 19, 2006