Eunice Renteria

Teaching Utopia in Classrooms

            As children, we are introduced to stories and movies that end with a utopian ending. Everyone is happy and living the life that they were born to live. But as we grow older, the utopian world is shattered because the real life problems don’t simply go away and not everything becomes better. Education plays a big role in this. Most readings in classrooms are dystopian because educators think that these readings can relate to their students and they are easier to read. But what about reading utopian selections? Why not read those and have those readings in our curriculum? Utopia readings can also have an impact on students and bring a new world of literature into their lives.

One of the reasons why utopian literature should be taught in schools is because it brings students to ask themselves the really big questions in a direct way. For example, how should we live our lives? What is the goal that society wants to accomplish? How should we govern ourselves? Where does authority come from? These are just some questions that students will be confronted with. These questions can help students relate their decisions to the way they contribute to society. Yes, a utopian world is a world of perfection and maybe that will never happen in our world, but we can ask why can’t it be? What is preventing it to be a perfect world?

In order for students to understand what utopia means, Utopia by Thomas More can be read so they have a better understanding on what that world is like. Thomas refers to it as “the good place”. It is described as a place of peace and harmony. Everyone is helping and wanting to help one another. This should be taught to students because it brings a sense of helping one another and into making that perfect world. It teaches students what their attitude should be in order to have a better life. Wanting to help one another and not having to help one another.

Another novel that can also be read is Anthem by Ayn Rand. In this novel even though the society can be considered utopian, the main character was not happy. In this community there is no violence, there is order, and everyone treats others as brothers and sisters. This can help students realize that even if it was a perfect world, there are still people who may not be happy. This community also stayed away from other communities who did not want to follow their rules. Students can discuss on topics such as, is it fair to segregate others just because of what they believe in? This novel not only shows students how to work for what they believe in, but also how to achieve this the right way. In this novel utopia has been demonstrated with explicit concerns of justice, governance, authority, and politics.

In Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we see that it was a community of women. There were no men and the women did everything on their own. When three men came to visit their community they were shocked to hear how different and bad the world had become outside their community. Other than getting the attention on young male students on the fact that there were no men, we can see that the women had a perfect world. So perfect that they had no idea how bad it was outside their community. This can bring a question to discuss with students, is having a perfect community that no one can come in a good thing or a bad thing? These women were naive about knowing what was happening outside their world. What if something happened and they had no clue on how to react? It is good to have a community that is welcoming and perfect but also it has to be knowledgeable on how the outside works.

As we conclude, I have to agree on what Amy L. Sasser stated, “I believe a main problem with any book assigned in school is simply getting the student read it in the first place”(2013). Like I had mentioned before, the problem with students is that they lack the interest in wanting to read. Students read because they have to and because it is for a grade. Students have lost the passion of reading and some educators, not all, have also given up on their students. As a future educator, I want my students to have a desire to read. Utopian readings may be boring, but they brings a lot of questions and good discussions. Why not teach these students utopian readings? Any teaching can be fun, but it also has to be fun for the one introducing the reading.