Class #6 - 2/12/08

I asked you to remember what you could about being 7 years-old, adapting this memory exercise from an idea I found on this website (POV's "49 Up"). I had mentioned a couple of weeks back about the filmmaker in England who had followed a group of people beginning at age 7 and now through age 49, filming them every 7 years. Many of you were fascinated by the idea so I had done some more research about it.

Of great interest was Alex sharing about the cruel game played in his 2nd grade class that was eventually stopped by the teacher. That got us talking about what it means to be mean. We looked at this from an Eriksonian stage point of view, Industry vs Inferiority, and how important it is at age 7 to feel confident with your peers.

I encouraged you to consider a project in which you took this exercise to a deeper level, partnering with someone else in the class. One way to do this can be found here.

I then showed you a snippet from the movie "28 Up," the fourth film in the series when the subjects were all 28. So many of you enjoyed this that you asked me to develop a class on the movies for the spring. I have started doing just that.

You can learn more about the film series here.