Dead Ends and Rabbit-Holes

When you go far enough down a dead-end street, there is no turning back. But occasionally there is another way out: a new dimension. A rabbit-hole.

My office-mate’s classes are analyzing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and he is constantly gushing about the legacy of Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece. He has found several references to Alice’s (mis)adventures in other sciences- unsurprisingly, psychology is foremost among them. The Red Queen Syndrome, for example, has been embraced by feminist psychoanalysis as more women find themselves “running faster and faster just to stay in one place”. (I wholeheartedly concur.) My own favourite, for the moment, is the Cheshire Cat’s answer to Alice when she asks which path to choose: “That depends very much on where you would like to go”. This is a great semester opener for course overviews, semester goal-setting and the like. A wide Cheshire grin on the whiteboard never hurt, either. My colleague remarked that, though many students are grappling with the abstract concepts in the course, all those who play computer games caught onto the rabbit-hole concept immediately: computer game “cheats” and shortcuts are part of their conceptual artillery.

I didn’t quite cheat, but I did come out of a dead end via a miraculous rabbit-hole. Last week I had searched in all directions for the best way to give my Language Through Arts students both theory and practice which they would value, enjoy AND take seriously. I discovered (to my dismay!) that while they are very comfortable with lectures using limited interaction, they do not consider their projects as a serious pursuit. To remedy this, I shuffled the schedule to cover the planning of their short film before they actually start to make the scenery, props and puppets. This was more successful, but still a little hazy. In the next session, though, I delivered my own film’s planning and the first scene of my script. This changed the chemistry completely, and suddenly everyone was hard at work. This week I brought in my growing collection of materials, as well as the scenery, which was received very enthusiastically. More importantly, students started visualising their own films. I have also modified my assessment plan to allow students to submit their planning any time within the next seven weeks: this means they can either take their time, or benefit from early feedback before making the film. It will be very interesting to see what the response will be.

Generally, the mood in these classes has picked up considerably. Because the course is so different from the usual linear academic fodder, the weird vibes may have been confusion more than resistance. When oh when will I learn not to take this kind of thing so personally? Or will that require another rabbit-hole?