by Reg Harris
Beginnings
In the early 1990s, Susan Thompson and I taught English at Vintage High School in Napa, California. We had both became frustrated with the traditional approaches for teaching literature because so many students seemed unable to see how literature related to their lives. Spurred by our dissatisfaction, we began searching for a new approach.
Ironically, our search for something new led us to something as old as human experience itself: the archetype of the Hero’s Journey (as described by Joseph Campbell and others). We discovered that the Hero’s Journey is the fundamental pattern of human experience, so it could be used as a foundation for studying literature and film. As a bonus, we found that when students learned the pattern, they were able to relate the themes from literature to their own experience and to better understand the journeys in their own lives.
|
|
Follow the fox to
The Hero’s Journey:
A Guide to Literature and Life
|
Developing the curriculum
With a clear understanding of the power and applicability of the journey archetype, we spent more than four years developing our new approach. The result of our work was a curriculum we called The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life.
Because both of us had experience in publishing and graphics, we decided to form a partnership to publish and market the curriculum ourselves. We produced a beta version of the curriculum and tested it in 14 high schools in central California. Using feedback from these tests, we developed the first edition and, In 1995, we formed a partnership called Ariane Publications. (“Ariane,” which rhymes with “Mary Ann,” is French for “Ariadne,” the woman in the Greek myth of “Minos and the Minotaur” who helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth.)
Teachers loved the curriculum. Now, 12 years and two updates later, the Hero’s Journey curriculum is being used by schools in more than 30 states and a dozen foreign countries, helping students understand the labyrinths they encounter in both literature and life.
Still teacher owned and run
Susan left the partnership in 1996 and pursued other life journeys, including earning an MA in library science. I continued to run Ariane Publications as a sole-proprietorship until 2004, when it became Harris Communications. I just retired from teaching, but my studies of the journey pattern in all of its manifestations have not ended―and probably never will.
My goal with Harris Communications, including my writing and my seminars, is to present the archetype of the heroic journey as a powerful tool for both teaching and self-discovery. I want to show how the hero’s journey pattern can help us not only better understand and appreciate literature and film, but also guide us through our own journeys to richer, fuller lives.
Harris Communications phone and
by Reg Harris
Beginnings
In the early 1990s, Susan Thompson and I taught English at Vintage High School in Napa, California. We had both became frustrated with the traditional approaches for teaching literature because so many students seemed unable to see how literature related to their lives. Spurred by our dissatisfaction, we began searching for a new approach.
Ironically, our search for something new led us to something as old as human experience itself: the archetype of the Hero’s Journey (as described by Joseph Campbell and others). We discovered that the Hero’s Journey is the fundamental pattern of human experience, so it could be used as a foundation for studying literature and film. As a bonus, we found that when students learned the pattern, they were able to relate the themes from literature to their own experience and to better understand the journeys in their own lives.
Follow the fox to
The Hero’s Journey:
A Guide to Literature and Life
Developing the curriculum
With a clear understanding of the power and applicability of the journey archetype, we spent more than four years developing our new approach. The result of our work was a curriculum we called The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life.
Because both of us had experience in publishing and graphics, we decided to form a partnership to publish and market the curriculum ourselves. We produced a beta version of the curriculum and tested it in 14 high schools in central California. Using feedback from these tests, we developed the first edition and, In 1995, we formed a partnership called Ariane Publications. (“Ariane,” which rhymes with “Mary Ann,” is French for “Ariadne,” the woman in the Greek myth of “Minos and the Minotaur” who helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth.)
Teachers loved the curriculum. Now, 12 years and two updates later, the Hero’s Journey curriculum is being used by schools in more than 30 states and a dozen foreign countries, helping students understand the labyrinths they encounter in both literature and life.
Still teacher owned and run
Susan left the partnership in 1996 and pursued other life journeys, including earning an MA in library science. I continued to run Ariane Publications as a sole-proprietorship until 2004, when it became Harris Communications. I just retired from teaching, but my studies of the journey pattern in all of its manifestations have not ended―and probably never will.
My goal with Harris Communications, including my writing and my seminars, is to present the archetype of the heroic journey as a powerful tool for both teaching and self-discovery. I want to show how the hero’s journey pattern can help us not only better understand and appreciate literature and film, but also guide us through our own journeys to richer, fuller lives.