The best teacher I had in high school was Diane Mishler, who taught such classes as "English Literature" and "Philosophy and Literary Criticism" (generally - and rightfully - considered the toughest class at Normal Community High School). My favorite class of her classes was "Stage and Screen," in which we learned about the best of, well, stage and screen. We explored theater and film from many creative, technical, and historical perspectives, and I learned an appreciation of these arts that I would never otherwise have gained. Better still, we watched a ton of movies.
So I have been sad the last couple days to hear about the deaths of famous and incredible filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Michaelangelo Antonioni. Their films The Seventh Seal and L'Aventura, respectively, were not only beautiful, but allowed me as a senior in high school to escape into another world and another way of seeing, which is pretty much the biggest gift anyone could have given me at that point.
Thank you to them for their work and beauty, and thank you to the unique and challenging and wonderful teachers of the world who believe their students deserve the chance to learn about such things.
2 comments:
I love this post, and I also love that if Mishler ever Googles herself, she'll arrive at The Grand Adventures of the Monkeyhippy.
haha! I don't know Diane Mishler, but I just googled her (thank goodness that term is now in the dictionary), and when with her name in quotation marks, Monkeyhippy is the fifth hit. So, hello to Ms. Mishler (in case she googles herself), and hoorah to teachers opening up the world for students!
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