The Hero’s Journey in the Classroom

The Soul’s High Adventure – This introduction to the current edition of The Hero’s Journey: The Path of Transformation outlines the goals and philosophy of teaching the Hero’s Journey. It explains the role of the Hero’s Journey in education and life, and it proposes a new role for you as a mentor in your students’ journeys.

Beyond Censorship: Four Timely Themes In Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, but the book contains four themes which are as relevant today as they were more than 60 years ago.

“Bet it’s Not in the Simpsons” – This is a short description of an incident I had in class many years ago. I told the class that the Hero’s Journey or its elements was in virtually every story, no matter what its form. One student immediately challenged me, “I bet it’s not in the Simpsons.” Turns out he was wrong.

Fly Away Home – Finding hero’s journey stories with strong female characters can be challenging. This little film not only shows one girl’s journey, but it shows how our journeys often are interlinked with the journeys of others.

Illustrating the Journey – Exploring different ways of illustrating the journey process can give us insights into the journey pattern itself.

A Myth to Live By: Introduction to the 1995 Edition: This is the introduction to our original Hero’s Journey teaching guide. It explores the significance of the Hero’s Journey in the classroom and how teaching it can help your students understand both literature and life.

Reading for Experience: To Live or to Tell – For literature (and film) to have lasting value in our students lives, we must not impose an “alternative text” between them and the story by asking them to read for analysis. We must allow them to engage the text directly and emotionally so that the story can expand their horizons and offer alternative meanings. After they have “lived” the story, they can analyze or tell about it.

The Journey and Brain-Based Teaching – Using the hero’s journey as a foundation for studying and analyzing literature and film finds solid support in research on brain-based teaching.

The Journey as a Learning Schema – Schema theory tells us that we learn best when we have a mental schema that we can use to understand and organize new information. The Hero’s Journey can become a powerful learning schema for studying literature, film and other forms of narrative.

We Live In Story – The Hero’s Journey is more than a heuristic for studying myth. It can serve as a metaphoric bridge to help students see how the themes in literature can expand and enrich their own lives. But first, the literature they read must become a part of the life they live.