Four Reasons To Go See "Noah" - it opens this weekend...

[LWolf]

48. Of course not.

I think that modern stories are more about entertainment than teaching, which is why students run into a brick wall of frustration when they hit secondary education, and stories are about more than that. Any story, in print or film, that can be entertaining AND offer avenues for thought and growth about what it means to be human is worthwhile.

I think that stories are part of our history, our humanity, and that we ought to celebrate them for what they are. I think that the story of Noah is fascinating, because it's one of so many flood myths throughout history. What I wish I could do would be to study (with my students) all of those different flood myths, put them on a timeline and in geographical context, look for commonalities and differences, and see what might have passed from one place to another through migration, and if those separated by great distances in time and space have any common source. I'd like to see flood myths understood in historical context. Since many myths evolve around some actual event, I'd like to look for possible localized flooding that could have given rise to an angry god destroying the world; ancients didn't really have a grounded concept of the world outside their own range.

I'd like to do all of that, but I can't, because the story of Noah is in the bible, and I'd be crucified by christians if I tried to put it in context, and by the rest if I tried to use a bible story as literature for "bringing religion into the classroom," and my middle school students would be understandably confused and conflicted if I presented what they've been taught as "truth" as myth.

I can't, but I can listen to my students talk about the movie; some will see it, some won't be allowed to, but will hear about it from peers. A bible story presented as mythological entertainment instead of historical "fact" is a move in the right direction, imo, and the time is ripe. Believe it or not, Rick Riordan, with his not-so-deep and meaningful "Percy Jackson" books and movies, has sparked a resurgence in passion for mythology among young people, setting them up for seeing myths through different lenses. I DO talk about archetypes in mythology and make connections to more modern stories with them, and their passion for mythology means that their brains come along for the ride in those discussions. I'm thinking they can make their own connections to biblical myth without me pointing it out. Being modern young people who love movies, adding a major film about Noah from a non-religious perspective will help them do that.

As you can see, my pov is not that of science, but of literature and history, but that's to be expected from a teacher of both.