Out Of This World

The point of my students' first blog postings was to "sell" their favorite pop culture to unbelievers. The point of their second postings was to partake in their classmates' loves-- to see if they could be sold. For number three, I wanted them to take a step outside the comfortable sphere of our class (and our immediate culture) and try something new.

I mentioned to my class that I wanted them to experience something uncomfortable. We watched an episode of Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days series, one that made some of them uncomfortable. The point, of course, was to expose them to the guiding principle of a show "that dares to ask the question "Do we really know what it's like to see the world through our neighbors' eyes?" (Amazon.com).

I wanted my students to simply walk in the world outside of Davidson County and then write about it. I asked them to be open and honest, as always, but I made sure to reiterate that I didn't want incendiary writing that showed no growth. There blogs were to be about expanding their cultural horizons.