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RAISING CAIN View the PDF

About the Television Series
Raising Cain is a two-hour PBS documentary and outreach project that program looks at the emotional lives of boys in America today. Michael Thompson, one of America’s leading experts on boys is the film's host. His book Raising Cain, with co-author Dan Kindlon, was a New York Times bestseller.

Raising Cain explores the lives of boys from birth through high school through powerful documentary footage. Michael Thompson’s in-depth interviews and interactions with boys reveal the challenges and confusion they encounter while growing up in America. In addition, Michael Thompson models ways for adults to engage boys and help them bring their inner lives to the surface. Raising Cain also features conversations with some of America’s most respected educators, including Geoffrey Canada, who offers penetrating insight and real solutions to the problems facing inner city boys.

Our Role
We worked with the program's producers, Powderhouse Productions, to develop and implement a comprehensive outreach campaign to accompany the program. We partnered with YMCA of the USA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Urban Improv to create a workshop and tools designed to provide youth development workers with insights and ideas that will help them better work with boys. We created the Raising Cain Boys in Focus Training Manual, <link> a comprehensive array of resources and information about boys -- their issues and their needs -- along with step-by-step instructions for conducting a Raising Cain workshop. We also coordinated formative evaluation of the materials and workshop, and we presented the project and outreach materials to outreach coordinators at PBS stations around the country.

The Challenges
Outreach for the documentary was funded in June 2005, with a broadcast date of January 2006. This presented a challenge in coordinating an advisory "summit" meeting, developing, producing, pilot-testing and refining the materials, and coordinating activities with our national partners -- all within a seven month time period. We were able to meet the challenge.

Our Role
Simone Bloom Nathan has served as FRONTLINE’s educational outreach consultant since 1994 and is responsible for developing teacher guides to complement FRONTLINE programs. To date, we have created more than 50 teacher guides on a wide range of topics including: Mormons, the war in Iraq, the politics of global warming, the role of media in politics, China's economy, the Rwandan genocide, terrorism, the impact of hurricane Katrina, Presidential elections, the "meth" epidemic, credit card debt and baby boomers' retirement. In developing teacher guides, we use multiple strategies, employing both content experts and teacher-experts as writers and advisors. We offer teachers creative and interactive lesson plans and resources to support the programs. We have also contributed to the development of workshops, forums and other outreach activities.

The Challenges
The unique nature of FRONTLINE’s public affairs programming requires flexibility to adapt to changing content and a film that is usually completed only days before broadcast. We also recognize that the teachers who use FRONTLINE will adapt materials to best suit their needs and those of their students. We have met all the challenges presented by FRONTLINE’s needs for high quality materials that require quick turn-around.

Our Role
We have worked with MacGillivray Freeman Films (MFF) since 1995 on three of their films — Everest, Dolphins and Coral Reef Adventure. For each film, our involvement began with the development of an outreach plan to be submitted to the National Science Foundation, which provided funding for all three films.

We created the outreach materials, working in consultation with MFF and museum educators around the country. For Everest, we created an interactive poster for families, along with a resource guide for museum educators with suggestions for companion exhibits and activities. For Dolphins, we had the opportunity to work with Girl Scouts of America and Aspira to jointly develop a Science Career Unit. Dolphins was unusual in that the two marine biologists featured in the film were a woman and a Latino man. These scientists provided much-needed role models for young girls and Hispanic children. We developed a video featuring Kathleen Dudinski and Alejandro Acevedo, along with a four-unit science “curriculum” for use in informal education settings such as Girl Scout programs. We also created a museum resource guide. For Coral Reef Adventure we created a museum resource guide and provided educational content for the web site.

The Challenges
MacGillivray Freeman Films (MFF) conducts frequent surveys to determine the impact and utility of their educational materials. We have worked with them to adapt materials and activities to maximize their educational potential for museum educators and families who see the films. We also work with the film’s content advisors to ensure that our science content is appropriate, and to find a “middle ground” between points of view that may be different.