Using Star Trek to Teach, Talk, and Inspire
Rick Menzel is a veteran teacher whose career spans over thirty of classroom experience at the secondary level. Rick holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of St. Thomas and a Master of Arts in English from the University of Delaware where he also earned his bachelor’s degree. As a student in History at the University of Delaware, he wrote his undergraduate thesis on the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, an all-black Union regiment in the Civil War which later became the subject of the movie, Glory. While a graduate student in education at the University of St. Thomas, Rick was recognized for achievements in economic education. As a high school teacher, Rick presented seminars at the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies on topics such as using role playing to recreate significant historical moments and using the lyrics of heavy metal bands to the illuminate the study of US and European history.
Rick attended college on an Army ROTC scholarship and served five years on active duty in the United States Army. He began his career as a freelance writer while on active duty and received the Forces Command “Fourth Estate” award for excellence in military journalism. Now retired from the Army Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel, Rick received the Meritorious Service Medal for achievements in his final tour of duty as Instructor in Military History at the reserve’s US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). Rick’s military background and classroom experience led him to the conviction that teaching is the responsibility of all educated adults and not something that should be left to a single professional group.
About the Author
This is a site about Star Trek created by someone is not a “Trekkie.” I have never been to a Star Trek convention, dressed up as Captain Kirk or taken a course in Klingon. I have only a passing interest in the backgrounds and biographies of the stars or supporting actors, even less in the inconsistencies and mistakes that are part of any creative process. The original series is more than a quirky science fiction show with a reputation for enthusiastic, often over-exuberant fans. Star Trek is a window to the past, a reflection of America and its people as seen by a generation that had just won World War II and were confident American leadership could build a better and more just world.
All parents are teachers—it’s just part of the job description. But this responsibility doesn’t belong to the birth parents alone. Aunts and uncles, grandparents, coaches, and neighbors, even family friends all have a duty to teach, nurture and inspire the young. The study of history thrives on discussion, illustration, and example. It is with good reason that when we hear something that gives us pause, we say we need time to “chew on it.” Good learning, like good cooking takes time. And just with cooking, there are many ways to prepare and present the same ingredients. Gathering the family around the table for talk and the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner is an important ritual, but so too is sharing a cup of coffee at Starbucks or a hot dog at the ball park. History is about people and human behavior, and the best teachers are not necessarily those with degrees or credentials. They are people we know and respect who explain things in ways we understand.
Anyone who begins by saying’ “history teaches us” this or that and then launches into a mini lecture is either a preacher or a pundit. History is inevitably related to point of view, the perspective from which the story is told. Ask people to discuss the causes of the American Revolution, World War II or the Great Depression and different ideas will surface, even among those equally conversant with the historical record. One way history informs our understanding is that it shows how people of good will can fundamentally disagree. It demonstrates how there can be many ways of defining what is of value, many ideas on what duty demands of each one of us.
I became interested in Star Trek not because I was a science fiction fan but because I wanted to share my love of history with my students and my sons. No one who spends time with young people can fail to be impressed by their confidence, ability, and optimism. Or discouraged by their apathy, indifference, or failure to apply themselves to the task at hand. Teaching is a daily encounter with an uncomfortable truth high school football coaches have always known—attitude is everything. Given equal ability or even unequal abilities, what often matters most is drive, determination and guts. And what is true of individuals is equally true for the collective group of individuals we call a country or a nation.
As others have observed, Star Trek is an American take on classical mythology. Like the Greek myths of old, Star Trek tells us more about ourselves than the facts alone. The first series was a commercial failure, a show that struggled to find an audience and was cancelled after only three years on the air. Today, more than half a century later, the original Star Trek is a window in time to the hearts and minds of the “Greatest Generation,” those American who grew up during the Great Depression and came of age during World War II. Boldly going “where no man has gone before,” the original Star Trek offers a glimpse at what Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum recently called, “the America that used to be us.” Flickering across the screen are the ideals and convictions of Cold War America, a nation confident in the belief that the American way was not just the best way, but the only way.
We believe all of us have a duty to teach, and that some of the most effective teaching takes place outside the walls of a classroom or the lecture halls of a University campus. Admittedly, duty is an old-fashioned word, but we believe it is an essential concept. When I say parents and other family members have a duty to be a child’s most important teachers, we speak from personal experience. Just as we did with my own children, I invite you to use individual episodes from the Star Trek saga to explore significant issues and teach core values, to understand the challenges that must be faced both by members of a family and by the citizens of a nation. This site is intended be food for thought, to encourage the teaching of history through debate and dialogue. Under such circumstances, people of good will may disagree, but that’s one of the greatest benefits offered by an understanding of history--the realization people see and understand the world from different points of view. From this debate will come, both an informed understanding of the past and the inspiration necessary to find our own way forward.
Every book on parenting (or marriage for that matter) emphasizes the importance of open communication. Specifically, we are encouraged to talk to our kids, our spouses, and to listen to what they have to say in return. If we are going to talk then, we need something to talk about. And let this something be Star Trek. The show became part of our popular culture because it is good entertainment—fast paced episodes with just enough thought in the dialogue to offer something to “chew on” when the final credits roll. Watch an episode of Star Trek and discussion naturally follows. But the purpose of talk is not just idle chit-chat. This is teaching talk, the only way to teach history or human behavior that gets beyond the Trivial Pursuit level of isolated facts, figures, and character sketches. This is talk about personal responsibilities and national obligations, talk about inclusion and exclusion, and what it means to be a good neighbor and how to play the most difficult role ever developed by central casting—to be yourself.
This site is called Star Trek for Dinner because a good place for any informed discussion is the family dinner table. “Family dinner,” however, does not mean interrogating kids about school and homework under the guise of a discussion. School teachers know that to get the best out of kids, they have to work on a system of “credits and withdrawals.” Watching Star Trek together should be on the entry or “credit” side of the ledger. The kids don’t have to know up-front you plan to teach them about duty and responsibility—let them think you just want to watch TV together. But do your homework. Read about the historical context of the episode you choose and review the plot summary. If time permits, watch the episode beforehand. With this preparation, you will be able to do more than teach, you will “inspire.” In its Greek origins, to “inspire,” means “to breathe into” someone else, to pass on something of your “breath,” essence or character. This inspiration, your own perspective on the past and the lesson it offers is what makes history come alive. Be prepared for your kids, your “students,” to disagree with you. Be pleased if they do—it means they are thinking both about the subject and the point of view you offer. Thinking about matters of consequence and reflecting on the words of those who have “inspired” us is how we form that all important component--character.
By the way, we there is no need for Mom to cook a five-course dinner. Let Dad brings home Chinese take-out or, better yet, have the kids order pizza from Dominoes. Build your own tradition, a ritual as sacred as Monday night football. A “family dinner” could also be an aunt and her twelve year old niece sitting down together at Starbucks or softball coach treating her team to post-practice snack. The essential quality to all of these gathering is the pairing of food and ideas, the free-flowing and open exchange between those who would teach and those who would learn. If you want people to listen to what you have to say, give them something to eat. Food for the body and food for the mind always go together.
And you do have something to say. And you do have a duty to say it. There are very good reasons why few of us are qualified to teach higher mathematics or physics, even fewer to teach astronomy or quantum dynamics. But history is different. It’s about people, the choices they made and the consequences of their actions. It’s a study in attitude, the indefinable quality that made one group of people more than the sum of their numbers, which made them a force that redefined the world in which they lived. What was true for the Greeks and Romans in antiquity was just as it was true of the British and for us in our times—inspiration and an informed understanding of the past paved the way to the future. But attitude is a plant that must be nurtured carefully—it thrives on inspiration and insight yet shrivels and dies under the burden of indifference. Teaching history requires only an understanding of the past, an insight into human nature and the desire to inspire the next generation.
Star Trek—it’s what’s for dinner.