In Which I List Children's Movies

In college, I took this geology class that sounded cool at the time of registration (titled Time, Life, and Man - doesn't that sound cool?), but turned out to be, you know, a geology class. While I can now appreciate the beauty of a nautilus fossil, this class was not exactly riveting. I found it entertaining to flirt with the guy who sat next to me, a former Army soldier who would make random animals out of origami and then pass them over to me. By the end of the semester, I had a veritable zoo on my desk in my dorm room. But then there were the days when the professor would turn down the lights and show film clips. ARGH!! NO!!! (Insert image of undergrad NGS sleeping in a giant lecture hall, drool crusting on her lips...)

I have a pedagogical predilection to hate film as a way of teaching. Clips now and again are fine, but whenever I was showing a movie in a class, I was wasting just trying to fill time. And, frankly, that's what I think most teachers do.

But the truth is, I hate watching movies. I love some movies (Babe, Dirty Dancing, and Monsters, Inc. to name a few), but for the most part, movies require more of an attention span that I can really offer. I am, above all else, flighty. My attention span is approximately the size of that of a gnat and sitting still for an hour and a half while images spin past face faster than I can process them is not a good thing in my book.

So when people ask me what my favorite movie is, sometimes I lie and name an acceptable film that would be appropriate for adults to enjoy. But the truth is, I like Babe (yes, the pig movie) the best. It is colorful and the story is simple and honest and it makes me happy.

As long as you don't turn off the lights.