Thursday, November 11, 2010

Cultural Literacy

It’s one of my favorite weeks of the year: the week I show the great classic (and possibly the finest movie ever made), Citizen Kane, to the seniors as part of Senior Seminar.  We’ll finish watching it today and then spend tomorrow discussing it – everything from the plotline and symbolism to the directorial choices and camera angles.  It’s a great, great movie, and part of the “cultural literacy” that’s so important to have.  Friday my seniors and I will be listening to music – we’ll explore the differences between Classical / Romantic music and the beginning of the moderns – like Stravinsky and Gershwin.  We’ll probably touch on jazz and the beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll.  In my freshman class, now that they have spent time studying the story of the Iliad and several books from the Odyssey, we’re enjoying a movie of the Odyssey produced by Francis Ford Coppola.  Next week the freshmen and I will invite our art teacher into our classroom so we can make shields in the manner of the great ancient Greek hero, Achilles.  And of course this weekend starts the auditioning process for the play….there’s always something exciting going on here at Cardin!

~Leslie Smith Rosen
Dean of General Studies

No comments:

Post a Comment