As regular followers of the Neighborhood can tell you, I was a pretty dorky kid.
It wasn’t enough that I sat and read the encyclopedia cover to cover. Nor was it enough as a precocious 8 year old explaining human reproduction to my mother–on a crowded city bus.
I actually got up early for school…to watch school on TV.
Especially during middle and high school, I would get up at a ridiculously early hour. Most of the time, it was simply to unwind and have some time to myself before I go off to the drudgery of classes. Usually I could watch a movie on the VHS, or an old show I taped the night before.
Eventually, I was hooked on the most surprising of programs–a college lecture.
Produced by the Annenberg Foundation and broadcast on PBS, The Western Tradition was a 1989 series of 52 televised lectures given by UCLA history professor Eugen Weber. It covered the development of Western civilization from the dawn of agriculture to the technological age, and wove many common themes together into a unified theory: trends in technology, social movements, government, economics, religion and art.
For me, it was an early entry into the world of higher education, and I was hooked.
Not only were the lectures rich, informative and compelling, they were delivered by a professor whose cadence even today is the benchmark for a great college history professor. Dr. Weber was born in Romania and educated at Cambridge, so his Eastern European Oxbridge lilt was both comforting and erudite. His pronunciation of names was impeccable–I thought all professors should sound like that.
Its not really for kids younger than high school age, but these lectures give a great overview of the main topics of Western civilization. They also give kids a heads-up on what is expected of college students–it sure isn’t “accountable talk” and Common Core, is it?
Videos for the Classroom: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Thanks to my new position, The Neighborhood may take a turn towards more world history and a touch less American history.
Today’s video is not only essential in understanding early civilizations, but is also a great storytelling tool.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written story of all time. There may be older tales, but so far none had been written for posterity before this Sumerian tale.
According to most historians, the epic was first written as a series of five poems about the legendary king of Uruk, four of which were combined to create a cohesive story around 1900 BCE, though the actual poems date well before that date (some as early as 2700 BCE). Later, a longer 12-tablet version was written between 1300-1100 BCE. Only a few small pieces of the earlier poems remain, and only about 2/3 of the later version survive.
The story is sweeping in scope and dense in meaning. Gilgamesh, the demi-god king of Uruk, begins as a despotic, even monstrous figure. Through various adventures, including fighting mythic beasts, angering the gods, losing his best friend and a journey through the underworld, Gilgamesh gains anunderstanding of himself, his place in the universe and his own mortality.
These adventures, many believe, form the basis to many later myths and legends, particularly the Greek myths and several stories of the Bible–specifically that of Noah and the flood, which owes much to Gilgamesh. It gives a window as to how ancient Mesopotamians viewed themselves and the universe, and also is a piece of excellent storytelling.
Gilgamesh has been retold numerous times, translated and adapted into several versions. To date, no good video adaptation of the epic exists. Of those available, it is difficult to find a version that connects with children.
Today’s film was created by a YouTube user and condenses the epic into an 11 minute animated adventure. It isn’t perfect: lots of details were missed, some of which critical to the story (where did Ishtar go? She plays a central role.) but it is kid-friendly, covers the basic tenets of the epic, and is short enough to use in both a social studies classroom and a literacy workshop.
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Tagged as Ancient History, Art, Bible, Commentary, Communications, Education, Epic of Gilgamesh, Flood myth, Gilgamesh, History, motion pictures, movies, Noah, Social studies, Teachers, Teaching, Uruk, World History, YouTube