Yesterday we finished watching "A Beautiful Mind" in psychology class and had enough time to start the presentations the students did before the break. I had them get into groups and pick their favorite disorder, collect info on it and put together a 15 minute presentation. Ski, Ivan and Laurel (names have been rearranged to protect the innocent) volunteered to go first and by coincidence their favorite disorder was Paranoid Schizophrenia. I was surprised that most of the students were actually paying attention to the movie, because they kept referring back to things that happened in it. The other thing I discovered was how great "The Simpsons" is for the discussion of schizophrenia. They brought up the episode where Bart's parents put him on the ADHD drug, and he goes wacko with the tin foil and garbage can lid, trying to prevent professional baseball from reading his mind. Beautiful paranoid schizophrenic behaviors, and we also got to discuss the difference between real schizophrenia and the same behaviors caused by drug use and/or withdrawal. One of the most satisfying half hours of my teaching career. Now, if only some of them remember "3rd Rock from the Sun" for when we discuss Narcissism. Hmmm, maybe we'll have to watch a few episodes........
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Focusyn with Bart in Psychology.
Yesterday we finished watching "A Beautiful Mind" in psychology class and had enough time to start the presentations the students did before the break. I had them get into groups and pick their favorite disorder, collect info on it and put together a 15 minute presentation. Ski, Ivan and Laurel (names have been rearranged to protect the innocent) volunteered to go first and by coincidence their favorite disorder was Paranoid Schizophrenia. I was surprised that most of the students were actually paying attention to the movie, because they kept referring back to things that happened in it. The other thing I discovered was how great "The Simpsons" is for the discussion of schizophrenia. They brought up the episode where Bart's parents put him on the ADHD drug, and he goes wacko with the tin foil and garbage can lid, trying to prevent professional baseball from reading his mind. Beautiful paranoid schizophrenic behaviors, and we also got to discuss the difference between real schizophrenia and the same behaviors caused by drug use and/or withdrawal. One of the most satisfying half hours of my teaching career. Now, if only some of them remember "3rd Rock from the Sun" for when we discuss Narcissism. Hmmm, maybe we'll have to watch a few episodes........
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I can't link, so you'll have to copy and paste this URL:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1068391.stm
When my 9GT class studies children's literature, all the kids who read The House on Pooh Corner read this article as part of their internet research before they write their essays.
I imagine your high school kids would enjoy this as well. (My favorite is "shaken bear sydrome.")
I always find it amusing when people go and apply human psychology to fictional characters. At least this one was intended to be funny. The guys that tried to analyze Bert and Ernie were serious. And that was the really funny part.
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