Thursday, October 1, 2009
Recap
In my opinion, my favorite part about this class is the atmosphere. I really believe the environment is condusive to that of a creative learning atmosphere. Everything from the subject matter, documentaries, to the setting of Allen, to the freedom of our blog posts gives room for interpretation and creativity. I guess if I had to pick something I disliked about this class I would choose the constantly dark nature of the films we choose but, really, it doesn't bother me that much to the point where I would not recommend this class to a friend or speak any less of it. If I had to pick something to be done differently I would defiantly discuss some of the blog posts in class because I feel a lot of them touch on very good subjects and make exceptional arguments. This class has influenced how I view documentaries more than I view philosophy but the questions that are raised by my newly acquired knowledge of documentaries are philosophical in nature. I have found through this class just how different this is of an environment than high school and that the people here are excited to learn. Because of this, teaching is not only the teacher's job and I'm beginning to realize how much knowledge my peers possess.
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Thanks for your helpful comments, Brendan -- I too enjoy the atmosphere and engaging in conversations with you guys. I'm sure it must feel hard to believe at times when an instructor says that he learns a lot from his students, but it certainly is that way for me.
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion about the blogposts is a good one, and I will try to do a better job of explicitly bringing them into class. I'm always excited by them, and intend to, but there's so much else to discuss, too!
And you certainly have a point about the nature of the films -- and that won't be changing anytime soon, I'm afraid! -- but I'll try to keep the non-film weeks filled with some less dark clips. It's interesting, because I didn't set out to create the course with all dark films -- it just seemed to work out that way for a variety of reasons.
I agree with you Brendan. In high school, it seems that it is designed so that students have to appear to be mindless drones and cannot share their own thoughts. With an environment like this, where students can contribute and ideas come from more than just a lecture of an overhead, the exchange of ideas is more productive and the depth and originality to the ideas is genuine.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brendan's and Gabe's post that things are a little grim in the movies that we watch. It is not the worst thing in the world, but it would be nice to watch something happier every once in a little while. :]
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