Speedlearn
Of course I’ve read and heard a lot about The Prisoner, the 1967 television series, but I never got a chance to see it. Now that AMC produced a remake, the original 17 episodes are available on demand. The good ones are great, the bad ones are terrible, but if you’re a fan of shows like Lost, Flash Forward or Fringe, you should take a look at their antecedent.
One episode, “The General,” takes a few swipes at education – both at rote learning, as evidenced by this clip:
… and more progressive forms of teaching, as displayed in this dialogue:
She looks around the garden and sees a man sitting in a deckchair. He is ripping pages out of a book and dropping them on the ground.
Teacher: That gentleman over there. What do you think he’s doing?
Number 6: Tearing up a book.
Teacher: He’s creating a fresh concept. Construction arises out of the ashes of destruction. And that woman?
She indicates a woman who is leaning upside down against a wall by some steps.
Number 6: Standing on her head.
Teacher: She’s developing a new perspective.
Number 6: Really?
He points to the man he was sketching.
Number 6: Him?
Teacher: He’s asleep. One learns only when the mind wants to, not at set times.
In Speedlearn fashion, here are a few rapid-fire clicks to carry you through the weekend:
* The latest installment in the Denise Farina hearings.
* The New York Times highlights a few provisions in the city teachers’ contract and gets compared to Fox News in the comments.
* Teacher shortage hysteria had led to a teacher glut in Australia.
October 30th, 2009 at 17:45
The Prisoner is fascinating. As a spy story it was great, but as it got into 60s drug-induced “whoaaaa, that was, cooooool, man” head-trippy stuff, it started going downhill. The couple of episodes before the finale showed hope, the the ending was as disappointing as one could imagine.