How do you begin your grand tour of world history? I start mine with a bit of movie magic—2001: A Space Odyssey. I play the first 10 minutes, where Australopithecus encounters a giant monolith. It’s a head-scratcher, an eyebrow-raiser, and my type of icebreaker in the first moments of the new class.
Those scenes do what good teaching should: they evoke emotions. They see apes learning to use bones as tools, and suddenly, we’re not just talking about history; we’re feeling the weight of a bone club in our hands. The monolith? Pure mystery. It symbolizes human progress, the unknown, or maybe just a big black rectangle. It all depends on the emotional response it triggers.
After the clip, we delve into an open-ended discussion. What could that monolith represent? How did the use of tools reshape our world? These questions open the door to various interpretations, fostering critical thinking and curiosity.
So, that’s my quirky kickoff for world history. I press pause right before the bone becomes a spaceship. By the time we reach the end of the course, we will return to what the bone becomes.
How do you start your classes?
