Whether spectators or active participants, students are regularly affected by the world of sports. For many of them, athletic competition is the most energized part of their high school experience. The intensity that sports engender is one of their primary attractions, and teachers can build on this emotional focus to engage students and, more…

In a thematic study she calls The Hero's Journey, the author introduces the classical archetype of the hero and the journey of the hero with Homer's "The Odyssey." After all, the wily tactician dreams up the idea for the wooden horse trick, thereby winning the war for the Greeks. He visits hell and, against all odds, makes it back. He defeats the…

Suggests that mass media advertisers are responsible for the creation of our modern mythologies. (JL)

Notes the presence of references to classical mythology throughout modern culture, and offers an annotated list of 43 works of contemporary fiction, poetry, and drama that use mythological sources and that can help close the gap between today's students and the gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters of long ago. (SR)

Suggests that television's imaginative hold on its viewers is produced by its use of primal mythological stories and powerful ritual narratives. (MM)

Addresses two misunderstandings about science fiction and fantasy: that fantastic literature is not serious; and that modern scientific civilization neither has nor needs mythology. Argues that values can be transmitted through science fiction and fantasy, which are modern-day forms of mythology. (RS)

Discusses teaching elements of film art in a high-school literature classroom. Focuses on two aspects of film that are different from written literature: metonymy (a key device for analyzing meaning in photography) and the function of film in cultural mythology. (SR)

Asserts that an effective approach to mythology should illustrate the connection among international myths, folktales, and legends that continue to be told in current literature and media. Explains how sample units on mythology could implement two phases of instruction: an introductory unit, and a reacquaintance with the themes of the first unit…

Shows how "The A-Team" is a purveyor of myth through its re-working of hero and plot motifs and its reaffirming of a positive American self-concept. (EL)

Describes how one English teacher developed an approach to Homer's "Odyssey" that focused on the mythical hero lurking within each individual and the power of myth to shape everyday human experience. Provides excerpts from student writing about the personal odysseys in their own lives. (HB)

Compares selected aspects of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey" with Homer's The Odyssey." (SW)

Describes the projects (an encounter session, drama, and a student-developed film) planned by a class in a course on mythology. (MM)

The image of the labyrinth from mythology can find modern day parallelisms in architecture, art, music, and literature--all of which contributes to a humanities unit combining the old with the new. (MM)

Explains how the literary metaphor of the quest can be used as a tool in self-explorations. (MM)