Before taking this class, I never really thought about myths. This might be an overstatement, but it is true. In high school, the extent of my myth thoughts were to the bare minimum. Maybe my teachers did not find them interesting or perhaps I was not paying attention at the time, but the fact of the matter is all I really knew about myths is that there are a lot of them and they involve beings that are not natural.
I think that being in this class has really enhanced my knowledge of myths (twice). The first time though was not as enjoyable as this time around. Again, this may be because of the people in this class, which make me feel a little more comfortable with my thoughts and ideas. Working creating a myth is immensely different from reading and analyzing one that already exists.
While I was writing the myth, I felt that I was the almighty God and I alone had the answers for my own little world. It feels great to have that kind of authority. God must feel pretty awesome! Aside from feeling power from being able to write a myth, it was relieving as it was informative.
On the one hand, I was able to unload my stress from the semester with this assignment, and on the other, I can understand myths a whole lot better. This is something that I will definitely pass on to my wee adolescents when I begin my journey as an English teacher.
It is impressive what one can do, what a catharsic moment can come about when one creates, especially when one creates a myth because it gives you that power aforementioned. I also learned a lot about what it takes to write and create a myth. With this knowledge, it becomes so much easier to analyze and compare myths. The only way I can really explain this is with the following example. Say you have an origami piece that you really, really wish to know how to make. If you take it apart and put it back together, most likely than not, you will have a greater sense of how it was made. The same concept can be applied in the understanding of myths.
I think myths should play a very important role in the lives of adolescents. It might seem like a mundane concept to them, but it can allow them to open up to creativity. It can also show them that the people who came before us, had a certain value for creativity and oral tradition. This is important because the things that are important today lean more so towards television, video games, and movies. These things are not necessarily bad, but it is important to sit back and contemplate every once in a while. Maybe with the understanding of myths and writing, they might be a bit more inclined to set some time to open up their creativity.
2 comments:
Hi Norma,
Like you, I had no interest in Myths before. In fact I found the whole thing really boring. I didn't like reading about them or anything. But for me as well this class has really made me see Myths and their value a lot differently. I agree that it is very important and valuable to teach students about Mythology. I think I would possibly do an assignment similiar to what we had to do and have them create their own. This really allowed me to become interested in Mythology, so it would be helpful in a High School class.
Your humor is great in your writing. It is always fun to read what you have to say :) Talk to you later.
Katie
Norma,
You weren't the first person to say that writing your myth had some sort of cathartic power on you and I find if very interesting that so many people did get that feeling when writing. I personal didn't get any kind of release when creating my myth; rather, I find inspiration in one of the things that I have always been fascinated with- the stars. But I went about the myth simply trying to explain their existence.
I like your analogy about this assignment, or assignment that are structured like this one, being comparable to taking apart and the re-putting-together a piece of origami—I think that you hit the nail on the head- in recreating a student is able to reinforce what was taught. This is a very valuable teaching technique and one that I have already used in my classes. Not only was I able to quickly assess my students’ progress, but it’s an enjoyable assignment for the students.
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