“Undroppable” East Students Rally and Dance for Education
Filmmaker Jason Pollock leads East students in a flash mob dance after talking about how they can help make education the nation’s top priority.
Undroppable filmmaer Jason Pollock was back at East High School on Friday afternoon. This time, instead of collecting one-on-one videos with students who face daunting obstacles to stay in school and graduate, he produced a quasi-flash mob of students and staff dancing on the gym floor to the sensational beat of Gangnam Style. It was all part of the Undroppable Election tour, an effort to empower students to help make education the nation’s top priority.
Pollock, whose documentary Undroppable features East as one of six schools from across the nation, is focused on the goal of raising graduation rates and sharing stories about students who succeed. While Pollock never mentioned a candidate’s name during his remarks to the students despite the looming election, he did say that he considers education the one “silver bullet” with the range necessary to shoot down virtually all of the ills facing America and the world, from the economy to climate change.
“Education needs to be humanized, not politicized,” he declared. “You guys have the power to tell your individual stories through social media tools and force the politicians to listen.”
East will soon have its own Undroppable booth installed where students can create videos similar to the ones included in the film of freshly minted East alumni like Cynthia Gallardo and Kierra Osborn, both of whom appeared at today’s event. Those videos will then be accessible via the Undroppable website.
Gallardo and Osborn joined Pollock and DMPS Interim Superintendent Tom Ahart in encouraging everyone there not only to stay their own courses to graduation but also to try and get at least one dropout they know back into school. Ahart pointed out that he lives not far from East and when he goes to a neighborhood spot to get pizza on Sundays he’s been having a dialogue with a former East student who works there about innovative ways to keep working as much as he needs to but also return to school and get the diploma that will multiply his options for the future.
For more information about the project, visit www.undroppable.com.
