Dystopias and Obama (not to be considered related)

Dystopia (n): A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system (www.readwritethink.org).

Just in case you were wondering, books, and often movies, dealing with dystopian societies are my favorites. You may already know this, but I love love love them.

My book favs: Ender's Game, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Anthem, Hunger Games, Mistborn, The Road, The Giver.

And my movie favs: V for Vendetta, The Village, The Matrix, The Truman Show, Gattaca, I, Robot, Pleasantville, Minority Report...you get the picture.

Who knew, though, that they could be so exciting? Okay, obviously I know, and I was pretty sure my students knew...that dystopian societies could be a fun thing to learn about, read about, and discuss, or maybe I am just a nerd.

And although some of the above mentioned books/movies are only bordering on the definition of dystopian societies, any book or movie dealing with a messed up world/future and/or postapocalyptic society makes me want to curl up in my bed, read my time away, and forget about the outside world.

Why, you ask? I don't know.

So back to the point of my story. I am an English teacher. I just started a unit on Anthem, by Ayn Rand (quick FYI: free classroom sets of Ayn Rand books can be ordered at www.aynrand.org for any secondary educator), and Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. These books, like I said above, deal with dystopian societies.

My lesson was scary for me to plan. It was my first time teaching literature (I only taught writing as a student teacher). It was the first lesson of a unit, so it had to be a good one. And...one of my fellow English teachers was coming to watch me teach it.

The lesson went extremely well...maybe even a little too well. After spending the majority of the lesson discussing our First Amendment rights (rights often not found in a dystopian society), we moved on to defining a dystopian society. In order to help my students get the best picture possible, I had them come up with examples from popular books or movies. Discussion.

Went.Great. Not only could students name multiple books and movies involving these types of societies, they could get down to the details about what was wrong with these societies. Once they named a movie, I would have them give a short synopsis that they had to keep appropriate; many of the movies are rated R. They then discussed what was dystopian about the society. They even went into The Matrix and how although their fake society may have been better than actual society, it wasn't better because it wasn't REAL, and they pointed out that we need to have choices. I love my students.

Well...after class, one of my students comes up to me and says, "It makes me feel good that teachers can talk about things like this."

"Dystopian societies?" I ask while thinking to myself...Don't tons of teachers teach books dealing with dystopian societies?

"No, well...just what we're talking about," he responds.

Shoot, he must be talking about the rated R movies, I think to myself.

Great. Great. Great. I think I may have made my first mistake. I did ask them to keep it appropriate, though. And the only thing that makes me feel better is that the well seasoned teacher observing my class didn't seem to find anything wrong with it. At least he didn't say anything about it when going over the strengths of my lesson.

And that is not the only stupid thing I did that day. Once 4th period came around (the last period of the day), I praised Obama's speech on education. FYI: My district would not allow the schools in my district to watch Obama's speech because of too many complaints from parents. They did, though, eventually change their minds, and we watched it in 2nd period the day of my dystopian lesson. But only after those students whose parents wouldn't allow it left the classroom. So basically, praising Obama's speech may not have been the best thing to do in front of my students...even if I went off about how it wasn't political at all. You really really do need to watch what you do and say as a teacher; trust me.

On a side note, I would like to give some credit to www.readwritethink.org and www.freedomforum.org for giving me great ideas for my successful dystopian lesson. :)