A middle school drama class watches Duet

[General Martok]

Student 1: "It was intense and kind of emotional, and thrilling - you can get into it. It was very complicated."

Student 2: "Good moral."

Student 3: "The ending wasn't that great - I didn't like that they stabbed him. That killed it for me" (and him!)

Student 4: "The Bajorans are just as bad as the Cardassians."

Student 5: "There was a lot of racial profiling in the episode. You see them (a race) and you judge them immediately."

Student 6: "I like it!"

Student 7: "Very suspenseful; you never knew what was going to happen."

Just a few comments from my class; we watched it in class yesterday.

 

[cwalrus2]

Very cool. I wish you were my teacher. Actually, my girlfriend and I are going to see "Inherit the Wind" on Broadway soon and we happened be up to "In the Hands of the Prophets" and that episode kind of fits very nicely with some of the issues in "Inherit the Wind" Just something to consider, but I don't know how many liberties you can take in terms of showing another Trek episode.

Anyway, good to know that kids are being exposed to some of the thought-provoking episodes of trek.

 

[Good Will Riker]

You are fortunate; in my ESL class, when my discussion class came to the chapters to teach "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" and "Star Trek" (1966), I had no visual aids.

They just did not provide a TV or a DVD player that could have helped immensely with my classroom discussion. I own all 10 films, TNG Season 1, and 2 Fan Collectives (Q and Borg) on DVD. My students really wanted to checkout "the whale movie."

 

[KyleCHaight]

We watched bits of TOS' pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in my science fiction class during first year of college (specifically, the scenes where the Enterprise goes through the barrier, the Kirk/Mitchell scene in sick-bay and the final fight).

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I wish my ESL class had truly been advanced enough to appreciate Trek.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Are you going to show them In the Pale Moonlight next?

 

[Neroon]

Excellent choice to show them! This is still my favorite DS9 episode, and your students' reactions in part demonstrate why. Any particular reason you decided to conduct your lesson this way? I mean, outside of showing them quality television DID actually exist at one time....

 

[MacLeod]

The students reaction sum up the episode, it was supposed to raise those sorts of issue.

 

[GaslightGreen]

This is a wonderful idea to spark discussion of serious issues. I also teach (in Nashville as well) at the college level and find that many of my students simply are incapable, or unwilling, to try to find meaning in entertainment and are incapable of finding entertainment in world events. This episode is a wonderful way to get them to discuss larger issues. I teach primarily theatre classes so I am unsure how I could bring ST into the classroom, but I would be very interested to hear how this particular episode worked into your curriculum. Thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[MacLeod]

Well some of the original trek did borrow from Shakespeare for it's stories.

 

[General Martok]

Temis the Vorta said:
Are you going to show them In the Pale Moonlight next?

Already showed it to 'em! That one was to show how monologues can function realistically in a production. Monologues are one of the most difficult things for an actor to do - there's nothing to play off of, simply an audience staring at you...

I show Trek to my classes for a couple of reasons. First, simply because I have them (all but TOS2&3 and ENT2,3&4). Secondly, particularly on DS9, the acting is generally superb, though there are exceptions... Lastly, with such a wealth of episodes from which to choose, it's fairly easy to find one that illustrates a concept I'm trying to get across.

I chose Duet because it's in season 1, and thus still pretty introductory. Even newbies to Trek can figure out what's going on just from the dialogue. Kira's development throughout the episode from anger, to understanding and sympathy, to horrified sadness is compelling. The interplay between Kira and Maritza is excellent. I also like the way the story develops through a series of shock twists.

From TNG, I showed the kids "Rascals." Obviously, this was one of the sillier episodes, but the very uncomfortable scenes between Miles and "Keiko" were right on target for my students. What if they had to do a scene where their character was married to an adult? How would that color their performance? It was then a jumping-off point for a wonderful discussion.

 

[Capt_Piett]

This would also be an apt episode to show in a history class after covering WW2, I'd think. I also really think this episode stands out from Season One as well. It was very well done.

 

[Maab of the Ten Tribes]

You are a cool teacher. I would have paid money to have watched Trek while in school.

 

[tomalak301]

KyleCHaight said:
We watched bits of TOS' pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in my science fiction class during first year of college (specifically, the scenes where the Enterprise goes through the barrier, the Kirk/Mitchell scene in sick-bay and the final fight).

I wish my college offered a science fiction class.

 

[AstroMike]

I used the classic episode "The Immunity Syndrome" a couple of times in my high school biology class. We were covering the amoeba and micobiology in general. If I have an opportunity to teach that class I would like to use the new remastered version.

 

[AstroMike]

I used the classic episode "The Immunity Syndrome" a couple of times in my high school biology class. We were covering the amoeba and microbiology in general. If I have an opportunity to teach that class I would like to use the new remastered version

 

[General Martok]

Maab of the Ten Tribes said:
You are a cool teacher. I would have paid money to have watched Trek while in school.

Thank you. Though many of my students roll their eyes every time I bring up Trek. After all, only an uber-nerd (like me) would watch that kind of thing... But the ones who can "get it", do.

 

[MacLeod]

Have to say that reaction from the kids means they've been indoctrinated to thing that ST is bad. Rather than watching it and making an informed decision.

 

[General Martok]

I don't know that it's Star Trek specifically; typically, the kids that automatically tune it out are female, and assume all sci-fi is just shoot-'em-ups with bugfaced aliens. There were a couple that started out with that attitude, but by the end of the episode were asking some fairly insightful questions.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Yeah, girls usually react more negatively.

However, when I was in ninth grade, we were doing sci-fi for English class. My teacher was a huge Trekkie and was going to show and was going to show BoBW. Seeing as how, I never really cared for that episode in the first place, I suggest we watch “The Visitor” that had just aired two or three weeks prior. I had taped it, and he hadn’t yet seen the whole thing so he thought it was a good idea.

When it was over, I tell ya, between all the girls there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. I really killed some misconceptions that day.