My interest and enjoyment of myths first began when I was in elementary school. I remember learning about the Greek gods and goddess and especially loved the story about Persephone. It was a beautiful story that influenced the plot of my own myth. I think that I was drawn to myths because there was a fantastical aspect to them. I always enjoyed fairy tales, and myths were just fairy tales of how and why things came about. I enjoyed all of the "characters" in the myths because I felt like they were human beings and reacted with human emotions.
Creating our own myths was fun because I got to be a story teller. I think that the aspect of story telling is very important in myths because let's face it, reading a story is far more enjoyable than reading a paper with scientific facts. In a story, we are able to convey what we know to be true about life, and we are able to decorate the story with whatever we want. Myths have the same affect; which is the reason why I feel that creating my own myth was no different than studying about them. The only obvious difference is the fact that it is my own original creation.
Learning about different myths was interesting because I was able to see the values other cultures had. It was surprising that most values seemed to be shared throughout all cultures. Also, the characters and plots in the different myths also seemed to be alike. This enhanced my interest in learning about other cultures, but not necessarily in the general study of myths.
I think that this excersise would be a good introduction to a creative writing assignment. It utilizes all elements of a story which is an obvious necessity when writing a creative story. The extra plus in doing this assignment for students is the ability to add their own twists to them. They love to make up stories(missing homework, reasons for ditching, acting out, etc.) and so this assignment would give them a sense of freedom and stress rellief. They can be as goofy as they want and be creative at the same time. I think that there will be really good myths that the students come up with because I was really impressed in reading our classmate's myths. This can be an activity that brings the student closer to their classmates and with the teacher as well. As teachers, we would get to see what their thoughts are and understand why they might react in certain ways. I am looking forward to assigning this kind of assignment when I become a teacher.
My favorite Disney princess
JASMINE
4 comments:
Hey Mimi,
Since you so promptly commented on my post, I thought I would do the same, except not so promptly.
I think it's awesome that you were exposed to mythical stories when you were in elementary school. Fairy tales and Jesus aside, I didn't learn about myths until I was in high school.
I too enjoyed being able to see what the myths brought to the table and thought of how I could put a twist on the myth. And I always feel like there should be some twist... somewhere there in the myth.
I was surprised upon the first time hearing about how there being tons of flood myths (there's like one for every culture or something of that sort). Each culture just puts its own mix on the traditional story. It's great to see how a culture can view an action a certain way and describe it in their own terms. AMAZING!
-jacob.
Hi Mimi,
Wow, I wish I had learned about myths in elementary school, although if I did I probably wouldn't remeber it now! I honestly have no memory about myths except wishing that I knew more. I always thought I should take a mythology course in college but it never happened. Anyway, I agree with you about how interesting it was to read about the different cultures and how they each had their own interpretation of the same stories. I actually found that to be the most interesting part of reading the myths. I also really got into the storytelling aspect of writing my own myth. I too am looking forward to introducing my students to mythology and creative writing in this way.
Hey Mimi,
That's great that you had the opportunity to learn about myths at such a young age. I think it's its important for teachers to expose students to learn about myths in class. Gives student the chance to learn about different cultures and open there imagination to another level.
Anyways, i loved your story. I could really feel every emotion. i saw your website and i loved ti. keep up the good work. I had fun reading the story
Hi Mimi! I am glad to see that you loved writing myths so much. You are right in the fact that you can basically create whatever type of story you want. It is also more fun to read, unlike scientific papers, like you mentioned. I think in college some classes become so focused on papers and rules of how to write, that we forget how to write a paper using our imagination. For me it is easier to write a thesis paper than something creative because I don’t have a lot of practice with being a storyteller. It is so great that you loved using your imagination, and I am sure it was also really fun since you loved fairytales when you were younger. I agree that this exercise is a good one for in the classroom. Being able to allow kids to use their imaginations and create a myth I think is wonderful practice for students with creative writing!!!
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