I'm just going to put it out there: I love the History Channel. As I write, it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm still in front of the television watching a story on British engineering in the nineteenth century. I would be hard pressed to find a topic that sounded more boring, but I'm completely hooked.
"Why the hell would I want to watch the History Channel?" you might be asking. "I'm not a loser." Well, I can tell you with 70 percent certainty that I am not a loser, and I watch it all the time.
The best part about the channel is the variety. You can watch a biography on Abraham Lincoln right after learning about the history of marijuana. A program on alien abduction leads into a piece on the Knights of the Round Table. If you had a bad day, throw yourself onto the couch and watch the life story of Bob Marley to bring yourself back up. If you had a great day, watch the life story of Charles Manson to bring yourself back down.
The only problem with the History Channel is when you come to the realization that it's a far more effective learning tool than actually going to class. Not only is the subject matter more captivating and unique, it's also better assembled and explained. There aren't any grad students that fumble around with PowerPoint slides or 90-year-old professors that fall asleep in the middle of a sentence.
I spend most of the time in my Shakespeare class wondering whether I'd rather have the ability to fly or turn invisible, but I hang on every word of the history of kickboxing or the origins of devil worship.
Everyone knows that using visual props is the best way to teach anything. I feel bad for the professors at Duke because I know they must be bored out of their minds sometimes too. If we could somehow merge class and motion pictures into one entity, it would make learning much more entertaining and fulfilling for both the students and the teachers.
For starters, music needs to be incorporated into the lectures. On the History Channel, the really dramatic parts are heightened by loud drums or blaring horns in the background. Professors should make a soundtrack to their lectures beforehand so that the students can actually feel the information being delivered. The discussion of topsoil in Dynamic Earth wouldn't have to be so bland if there was a slow yet steady buildup of strings and flutes until the climactic introduction of erosion prompts a fury of cymbal crashes and a kick-ass guitar solo.
Furthermore, most professors need to work on their enunciation and flair. Granted, it's not easy to make an economics lecture blow all the students back in their seats. But the narrators on the History Channel could make a tour of a screen door factory bring you to tears. How? A rich baritone voice accompanied by helicopter whirring or lasers firing in the background works wonders on a tired crowd. A simple microphone set up and a sound effects machine would surely prompt standing ovations on supply and demand discussions, or whatever econ people talk about.
In all seriousness, the thing that professors at Duke should realize is that someone out there has finally figured out how to make learning fun. I realize that it's a lot easier to make pieces on liquor smuggling during Prohibition and the history of vampires more attention-grabbing than cell division and tangent lines. Still though, there's a reason why a lot of people watch the movie instead of reading the book, and only part of it is because of laziness.
Information needs to be presented artistically and excitingly in order for anyone to care. When the method of expression is dry or uninspired, it doesn't matter what the material is because the audience will be lost from the start. If you've never seen a program on the History Channel, I'd strongly encourage being a loser for a day. Skip class if you have to. You'll learn more than you'd think.
Steve Brown is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Wednesday.
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