After sitting in class last week I began to think about what exactly the point of Dr. Lennon's 9 minute youtube viewing of every single news report on the planes crashing into the WTC on 9/11/01 was...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3OhQH15T-gWas it an, oh so original way to stir up emotions and get his students to free write? What was the point of needing to see those images over and over and over and from one angle to the next and from cable television broadcast to network tv?
Was it fair game to make us sit and watch unforgetable images we have seen before-- without knowing how it touched some of our lives?
1 comment:
An excellent point and maybe I should have made myself a bit clearer. I try to always present my philosophy behind my pedagogical exercises but maybe I didn't do so as well as I could. Let me try here.
9/11 for many of us who lost loved ones is this moment that has been seared into our consciousness. It is tough to think about and it is even tougher to talk about. Every time I try to, what happens is that I start speaking in clichés. [And I certainly didn't want to do that in our class]. And when I have had classroom discussions about 9/11 in the past, there is usually many who talk about their experiences. And this is a good, cathartic thing to do. But there are also many who shut down.
9/11 has--FOR SOME--become this iconic image that has lost that impact that we all felt when we first heard about these planes (read through some of your classmates’ blogs to see what I mean). As politicians, films, and TV shows repeatedly use this day for their own particular reasons and spins, 9/11 becomes an image, a talking point, a reason to do something (or not), but that feeling that we had that moment gets lost.
My attempt in showing these graphic images was to recreate the moment when it happened. That moment when no one knew what was really happening and I wanted to bring us back to this base moment by replaying the news programs who are always so sure of themselves completely lost and flabbergasted.
For me, this worked in class because I was disturbed and shocked and saddened by these images. A kick in the stomach might not be the kindest way to start a class but it will get us all focused and realizing what is at stake when reading the play THE MERCY SEAT.
We are talking about a play that is about a guy who wants to use 9/11 for his own gain. As as you are aware in class, many students connected with Ben. By having those images at the beginning of class, then, I was trying to remind them and all of us what Ben was doing when he made this day about himself.
I would write more but I am in Dunkin Donuts (no internet at home) and I can't really think with the bad music blaring in my ear. But please feel free to talk to me about this in my office. I would be interested din your thoughts and what you have to say.
Take care.
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