A hero’s journey

I have to confess that my free time reading habits are not exactly mature: I love a good young adult story, preferably with magic or starships (or both), where the main character begins as an ordinary person and develops into a real hero (and saves the world, of course). It seems the writer of today’s post, Adam Powley, is a little like me. At the very least, he understands people like me and knows how this interest in ‘epic quests’ can be harnessed in the classroom to give meaning to the syllabus. It’s not exactly gamification, it goes deeper into those universal stories that define our life choices (now this is way too deep for a Thursday morning!).

Anyway: do you think it makes sense to use narratives like this for a series of lessons? Or is it too contrived? Perhaps it’s better just to inspire love of learning and honest curiosity in your students?