Watching Star Trek I often thought about how I would fit in if I was suddenly dropped into the Star Trek Universe. Who would I be friends with? (Dax, Tilly, Spock) What would my job be on board? Lately I’ve…
Let me paint for you, briefly, a portrait of a child. This child is young, no more than 10. Questions of identity, gender, and purpose are still well into his future. He spends most of his day failing: failing school,…
During the fall semester of 2017, I taught the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Darmok” to my Developmental English class. Students’ skill levels vary in my class, but to generalize, they tend to have trouble with certain elements of…
One of the things I’ve always loved about Star Trek is the idea of exploring the unknown. Isn’t that what we do in our daily lives? Explore unknown situations, emotions, ideas? Humanity is in a constant state of exploration, it’s…
As a teacher and a Trekkie, I can’t help but notice the philosophical similarities between us in the field of education and Starfleet. We have genuine belief in the value of our work, and this causes us to be ridiculously…
I teach two sections of a developmental English course at a public community college in New York City. When students fail their reading and writing college entrance exams, they come to me. My class differs from traditional remedial courses in…
Looking back at TNG’s 5th season episode “New Ground,” most would probably remark that it was – aside from establishing Worf’s son, Alexander, as a recurring character and featuring the return of the fantastic Georgia Brown as Helena Rozhenko –…