I use Dragon Ball as a Teacher

[foxfang4]

I remember loving Dragon Ball as a teenager. It actually helped me tremendously through a period where I was suffering through a pretty deep depression. In my early 20s, I I got a chance to watch the series in Japanese and I was actually impressed with how much it spoke to me as an adult. I felt, at its core, Dragon Ball understood concepts relating to masculinity, perseverance, determination, respect, and a sense of self-actualization. Flash forward to my early 30s, and I'm a Teacher; often teaching students from a fringe behavioural program integrated into my classrooms. I decided that I needed to implement more media into my class to help the students with their alienation and so that people could get to know one another. Well, I started to share things that I loved: namely Dragon Ball. To tell you the truth, it's impacted students in a very positive way; more than I could have predicted. Students in the behavioural program (who are integrated into my classes) have a lot of issues. They're usually on heavy medication, from broken families and are considered be very emotionally unstable. I realized that Dragon Ball is a tremendously empowering show. Students who seemed depressed and frustrated for months on end, suddenly seemed so full of energy, seemingly determined to meet their daily challenges. Some of them have gotten really into Naruto since then (our school library, by some fluke, has a ton of Naruto manga). Anyways, I just wanted to share that. It kind of blows my mind, that a series that is this old can have such an impact on a new generation; more so than most anime/manga that they were into prior to being introduced to Dragon Ball. I felt, when watching the orange bricks (japanese subbed version) in my 20s, that the series was really something special; a real timeless classic. But I was waiting for awhile to share this story. It's been 3 years now of sustained success with students reacting positively. I have so many little stories to tell about how they've reacted and improved from watching this series. I wasn't crazy to think this series only affected me in my time of need as a teenager or as an adult. I'm convinced that Toriyama has tapped into something special with his work.

[jjgp1112]

Way back in 03, during DBZ's first run peak in popularity in the states, my fifth grade teacher (mid-20s) was also a fan and occasionally used it for examples. I remember him using Goku and Kid Buu's spirit bomb struggle to help explain force to a kid