Education
How to keep an ancient text interesting to students? Make it a summer blockbuster
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Matt Damon is Odysseus in a new film that was written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan.
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Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic/Melinda Sue Gordon
Casey Crowhurst has taught high school English for the past 16 years. One text has never gotten much easier to teach.
“The Odyssey was always one we kind of struggled with,” he says. Getting his students at Monticello High School in eastern Illinois to pay attention was a tall order.
“You tell them, ‘Hey, this was written 2,000 plus years ago.’ And right away, they’re gonna be like, ‘well, why do I have to learn this?'”
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Crowhurst, like many teachers, uses clips from the 1997 Hallmark miniseries and other adaptations of The Odyssey to help keep students engaged. The students are not afraid to tell him that they find the dated special effects silly.
So after Crowhurst saw The Odyssey when it opened last weekend, he posted his gratitude for the film’s director on TikTok.
“I just saw the Odyssey and I want to say on behalf of all English teachers: Thank you, Christopher Nolan. Thank you.”
There are countless adaptations of Homer’s epic poem, from The Simpsons, to the stage, to other movies with big name actors. Erin Hall, an English teacher in Charlottesville, Va., says she’s excited to add a new version to her teaching toolkit.
“I love including any kind of outside media in my classroom,” she says. “It gets kids excited to learn.”
Some teachers, including Sarah Noll at South Lakes High School in Reston, Va., use visual adaptations of the epic poem to help her multilingual students learn English.
“They create a kind of dictionary of the important vocabulary,” she says of her students: things like ship, sea, king, suitor.
Hear how Crowhurst, Hall, Noll and other teachers hope to use the new movie in their classrooms. Click the audio link above.
Edited by: Nirvi Shah
Visual design and development by: LA Johnson
