East Meets West--Notes on Today's Class

We had a great class today. It was fairly low-key; students worked on their assignments that are due on Friday. The assignment is to identify three characters from popular books, or films, or even TV shows that have similar characteristics to three characters in Winnie the Pooh. Write 1-2 paragraphs explaining how the characters you choose embody similar characteristics to Pooh, or Eeyore, Owl, etc., and THEN explain how these characteristics embody some Taoist principles (just as Benjamin Hoff does in The Tao of Pooh). In the end, you should have 1.5-2 pages of writing. All in all, students were productive today in brainstorming some interesting characters. We discussed the similarities between Pooh, The Dude from "The Big Lebowski," and R2-D2 from "Star Wars." Likewise, students recognized similarities between Piglet and C3PO from "Star Wars." Overall, this is a fun assignment that examines character AND the principles of Taoism. Methinks it's a good assignment..