In a class of mine this semester on Leadership in the Ancient World, students were asked to work in groups for their final project and to use some inspiration from ancient literature and history to develop approaches to teaching about leadership.
The project had few other instructions besides that; and the students developed some entertaining and fabulous final products.
One group, inspired by Homer and discussions of the metaphor of “shepherd of the host”, created a Jenga Challenge–they asked groups of students around campus to designate a leader and complete a giant Jenga task in exchange for cookies. I would tell you more, but the video tells it all.
Another group of students, inspired by decision-making scenes in the Odyssey made a choose your own adventure comic book based on the scene in Polyphemos’ cave. The site Pixton has the digital version, but the paper edition is amazing.
Another group banded together and started a website called HomerandHomies where they are sharing their own stories, experiments, interviews and thoughts about the ancient world and leadership. Any summary here fails to describe their work.
Some highlights include: an analysis of the Beatles’ leadership issues informed by the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon; A piece of fiction about a football team based on Odysseus’ struggles to get home; leadership advice from that wily hero Himself; and a debate about education modeled on Plato’s Lesser Hippias..
To all readers, check out these projects. To my students, I cannot express my gratitude for a wonderful semester.
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