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In reply to the discussion: Vote!: Which Dystopian Movie Looks to be closest To Our Future? [View all]Nevernose
(13,081 posts)I'm a third generation teacher, and I've already been teaching quite a few years.
One of the most chilling conversations I've ever had with my mother was when we were discussing our favorite books to teach. She loved teaching Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, and Macbeth. Me I love teaching Huck Finn, anything Steinbeck ever wrote. We realized that we both loved teaching 1984.
What creeped us both out a little bit was that when she taught it, starting in the 60s, she taught it as prediction: a warning about what the future could turn into. When I teach it now, I teach it as the past, and instead of students predicting what will come true, we spend a great deal of time figuring out what already has come true. Most of it, except with an oligarchy instead of a dictatorship.