Today was a good day. I got to "ruin" yet another movie for my students. You see, one of my jobs is to make the literature I teach relevant to today's culture and today's young people. Since, according to Thomas Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor, there is really only one story, this is much easier to do than people think.
The movie I ruined today was "Roxanne," starring Steve Martin. My gullible students believed that, yet again, I was just tired of teaching and had decided to show a movie. Alas, as usual, they were wrong! Today, I informed them that they, in fact, had just expressed their enjoyment about "Cyrano de Bergerac." I had previously shown "10 Things I Hate About You" before we began our Shakespeare Through the Ages Unit.
I asked, "How many of you loved that movie?" All hands shot in the air.
I replied, "That's fantastic. It's so much easier to teach Shakespeare once everyone has decided how much they enjoy his work." All faces then fell.
After today's pronouncement, one student told me, "The trust is gone." They told me they'll never believe me again when I tell them we're "just going to watch a movie." My work is done!
Yes, today was a VERY good day!
