One of the things that I always try to do on the first day of class as a teacher is make the students excited about the possibility of what the class could be and mean for the rest of the semester. I can’t count how many of my first classes with instructors only made me bored and apprehensive at the prospect of being in such a small room with such a boring person for a substantial part of half of my year. Learning really should be fun and enjoyable.
As an arts person I was horrified at the prospect of taking both of two science credits and a math credit (ewww!) during my senior year. You know what though: THEY WERE GREAT! How could this be? The teachers were fantastic and excited about what they were teaching. I ended up learning a great deal in Statistics, Computer Science, and Geology. In fact, geology came up in my graduate class today as a way to better explain the arrangement of organizing the contents of a historical book. This particular book resembled the organization of a sedimentary rock rather than a metamorphic. And you know what: rock talk was the clearest way to quickly define that organization. (“If I hadn’t taken Geology…”).
So when I teach a class of nearly 500 non-arts students I try to convince them to invest themselves in the course on day one. How do I do that? I surprise them. They think that they understand art (or in this case movies). They think that they have a good idea about what they like. They also, sadly, often think that they like what the person next to them likes. I prove them wrong. I teach them that documentary film doesn’t have to be about island birds, handguns, or hamburgers. Documentary film can be about a personal journey, a dream, or even love. I teach them that they do have a unique opinion. How many of my students share the same favorite film? Not many. To my students this is surprising. To my students this is new. To my students this is fun. And guess what… they learn something. They’ll be back next week too… to learn something again.