The fiercest fight is the fight for survival. Home Tree Media (HTM) teams with a Tyler, Texas couple, Mildred and Oliver Allen. A new DVD film Death March from Bataan to Manchuria: Raising a Survivor’s Voice aims to help learners worldwide. A free online lesson, National Treasure, about the film’s topic makes it easier for learners to identify with prisoners of war. The film and lesson bring enhanced understanding about civic behavior, history, facing conflict, the Bataan Death March, the Manchurian slave labor camps, and daily survival.

On January 26, 2009, Home Tree Media announced their newest DVD film, Death March from Bataan to Manchuria: Raising a Survivor’s Voice. Jean K. Bruce makes films, writes, and publishes for HTM. Jean co-authored six textbooks with her husband, Professor William C. Bruce. Home Tree Media has produced three DVD films in the past sixteen months. Additionally, Jean and Professor Bruce started research and filming, a year ago, on a feature documentary, Selma: Bridge over Troubled Waters.

William C. Bruce is a professor of education at the University of Texas at Tyler. He also teaches a multi-cultural course. Professor Bruce is a winner of the Teaching Effectiveness Award, and the Teacher of the Year, Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award, finalist.

HTM is a small, independent, Texas-based publishing house. HTM published eight books since 1992. From their Tyler home the Bruces’ comment about their media projects. Jean says, “The revelation coming from the film and free online lesson, we hope, helps learners deal with problems. How do you respond to problems? How do you adjust to new conditions?”

The Bruces’ newest film is a discrepant event lesson resource, instead of containing a discrepant event lesson. HTM’s free Web discrepant event lesson, made for the HTM film, gives visitors extra information, such as facts from the Library of Congress, the Oliver Allen Collection Veterans History Project, by Linda Cross, Bobbye Rucker, Tyler Junior College, the Tyler Public Library, and hundreds of other resources. Jean says, “Both the film and lesson seem low-key, but they support problem solving and the learners’ senses. During the lesson, we see the learners’ sense of survival grow sharper.”

Professor Bruce adds, “Discrepant event learning allows flexibility. Humans deduce, we should doubt, from a sixth sense. Discrepant event lessons prompt us to examine hidden cues and clues. Older memories build new connections and concepts. Discrepant event lessons impart the ideal method for confronting complex topics. What’s more complex than thinking about survival?”

“The human sixth sense or intuition, you realize while using discrepant event lessons,” Professor Bruce says, “often gives you superficial problem solving evidence. We all know that reason and logic throw light on perception. Yet, humans resist following multiple answers to questions. Humans often look for overly quick, easy answers. Some students, also, exhibit low tolerance for the needed initial ambiguity in inquiry lessons. Adept discrepant event learners accept ambiguity long enough to unearth more probable answers; they systematically generate, as in survival mode, many possible solutions. Learners rarely, if ever, solve life’s problems by using their sixth sense, or suspicion. However, learners bring their subconscious mind to most investigations. Discrepant event learners raise their awareness through trial-and-error. Learners follow options through questions, research, and theories. To practice the lessons though, a few lessons should present problems your learners answer easily. As in life, learners training with tough questions and answers stand a better chance to successfully face their life-sized complicated questions. You empower yourself by renewing and creating abilities from involvedness and complexities.”

“The HTM film and the Web lesson show you that the topics remain sensitive.” Jean says. “The Bataan Death March and the POW camps held secrets some people wanted to keep hidden. The mysteries endure. In the earlier years after WWII, many POWs unnecessarily suffered. They suffered physically and physiologically. The Bataan Death March and the Manchurian labor camps, in particular, present a puzzling yet distinctly important, part of American’s past. The film packs Mr. Allen’s survival insights into a media parcel, a DVD film. The DVD contains archival material: film, music, radio broadcasts, and photographs. The interview with Mr. Allen—his story reveals a quiet man—a problem solver.”

Jean continues, “The discrepant event part (narrative) of the Web lesson seems trivial compared to the total event—WWII. The discrepant event’s list of facts and resources, however, guide learners to open questions, thoughtfully, until they untie the whole parcel. The lesson spotlights many realities of the events: the capture, enslavement, and indirectly, the critical problem-solving prisoners of war used, and exercise today. Learners apply problem solving without the harm POWs had to cope with in real combat or in custody.”

Professor Bruce says, “The film and the Web lesson convey the need for awareness about hard times. Hardship calls for cooperative, resourceful problem solving. An involved interest, from teachers, other educators, concerned citizens, and students, adds to the authentic sharing of resources. To me, civic activity while working on a lesson about the ultimate “good citizen conduct” equals a big civic, social studies reward. Resource sharing often moves attention beyond classroom study. The sharing of personal knowledge about such subjects as WWII, Bataan, and survival fills in learning gaps. The stories in the online lesson assist teachers in forming bonus teaching and learning. The lesson serves as a model for teachers to make their own discrepant event lesson. Then teachers face their fear of creating their own strong discrepant event lessons. And learners face their fear of failure. They find the needed ingredients to prepare them for dilemmas, regardless of the obstacles, and to make clear decisions.”

Jean adds, “The interview I filmed with a true survivor, Oliver Allen of Tyler, Texas, provides a new rights-clear video and other open source material about the topic for teachers and students to use in their classrooms immediately. The Allens’ book is a great resource. Abandoned on Bataan: One Man’s Story of Survival gives the reader a dimension our film and lesson cannot give.”

Professor Bruce says, “Many people know Bataan as the place where the United States suffered its largest surrender; American and Filipino troops numbered about 78,000.”

“The surrender resulted in the Bataan Death March.” Jean adds. “The Bataan Death March, so aptly named, also shows us why the world refers to the people of the time as the Greatest Generation. Have you recently thought about that generation? Do the people seem to you, less worried by, say, discomfort? They see, in a profound way, how sudden a situation can happen. They’ve seen extreme changes. They share an insight about the need for perceptive, shared survival thinking. The generations with fewer national traumas have fewer times to practice survival. You’ve heard the term, National Treasure, many times. Did you think about the term seriously? The men and women, who fight for us today, the men and women who fought for us in the past, and the men and women who were POWs, are our National Treasures. Hokey sounding? The meaning behind the definition conveys, more than ever today, an important reality.”



For more information about Mildred Allen and Oliver Allen, or discrepant event lessons visit hometreemedia.org,

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