Playful rivalries ignite as eighth graders compete to be dubbed a knight of the Golden Horseshoe, a highly coveted history competition.
The American public school system is at an inflection point. Across the United States, schools are facing a crisis that may dismantle the very fabric of our education system, a core service and ideal of our Founding Fathers, who knew a well-educated population was the only means of ensuring America's future. But between legislative pressures to privatize our schools, an economies of scale vision that disproportionately neglects rural and low-income environments, fall-out from a reliance on Covid-relief monies, and over-simplified funding formulas, our schools are failing to balance budgets and provide high-quality education to all of our children.
But there is a beacon in these hard times. A quirky history competition called the Golden Horseshoe challenges us to reconsider the wonders of education, history, culture, and the ways knowledge creates power equitably if offered and wielded well. Since 1931, West Virginia’s eighth graders have participated in the Golden Horseshoe competition, the longest running program of its kind in any US state. Students spend the school year studying a comprehensive West Virginia curriculum, which leads to a test on history, geography, economics, and civics. The top-scoring students are inducted as “knights” of the Golden Horseshoe Society.
To celebrate all that history has to offer, we’ll go on a quest for the Golden Horseshoe with a handful of students. History geeks and lovers of education resound in glee as youth use quirky studying techniques, living histories, and experiential learning to make history an adventure. Through a fusion of live action and animation, students will go through the highs and lows of competing. The film hopes to encourage a renaissance in public education while soberly documenting the challenges that modern, rural American education systems face. We will fall in love with the students. Root for them. Learn with them. And enjoy seeing them journey to Golden Horseshoe victory or failure.
