Say You Want a Revolution
So this week in World History we’re starting a set of units that have revolutions as a theme. To help introduce the topic I ask my students to analyze the lyrics of The Beatles’ “Revolution” because I think John Lennon does a pretty good job of incorporating a lot of the themes we discuss. The worksheet we use is in my Google Docs collection; I need to do a double-check on the lyrics transcription.
Some time in the next month or two I’ll ask students to create a video for the song based on what we’ve learned. (Which I suddenly realize means I need to figure out what I’m going to do about the student acquiring the song and whether I’m condoning or even encouraging piracy, or whether I can justify this to myself as a fair academic use. But that’s for later.)
The funny thing is, today we were talking about the idea that revolution often involves destruction – not just physical destruction as in war, but destruction of old ways of life and doing things. We talked about a lot of technological revolutions, and all of the old businesses that have been destroyed by the digital era. We talked about cassettes and record stores and film cameras. And right after we had that discussion, what do I read? That the Kodak company might be filing for bankruptcy.
Never mind ripping from the headlines, the headlines are ripping from me. 🙂
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.