A social studies teacher has his students read an eleven page summary of Cervantes' Don Quixote (book 1). He focuses on the comedy of this old man who decides to be a knight when the glorious days of knights are long past. As students read a chapter, he asks them to find the humorous parts such as Don Quixote fixing his metal helmet with cardboard like material, of this man thinking that windmills are giants, and of this man challenging silk traders to go to confess that Dulcinea is the most beautiful woman in the world. They find that Cervantes wraps humor around humor. Even if the silk traders had agreed to go, they could not find a woman named “Dulcinea” in El Toboso because Don Quixote has renamed the local farm girl. As they read, they laugh at the ridiculous thing this person does in the name of knighthood. After reading this Don Quixote summary, the students are asked what was happening in Spain in 1604. They soon realize that Spain had lost its empire; Spaniards were so frozen in thinking of their glorious past that they could not move forward. The instructor widens this thinking to the idea of the past glories for various empires around the world; these empires rise and fall. No “fallen” empire has regained its glorious past.

Furthermore, the social studies educator use this literature to help the students assess their own beliefs. As the students laugh at Don Quixote for believing everything he reads about knights, they are challenged to think about what they believe as they hear the TV news, read the newspaper, or read Internet articles. When they mock the knight for wanting to right the wrongs, they are asked to think of what “wrongs” need to be righted now. After they make fun of this knight for wanting to free the princess from the evil magicians (the St. Benedict friars), they are asked what cause they believe in and what actions they do that help that cause. Or maybe they lack the knight's courage?

The adventures of Don Quixote also provide the teacher with a tool for the students to examine additional concepts. The students quickly realize that there are two viewpoints about the windmills. Sancho Panza sees them as windmills but Don Quixote sees them as evil giants. The teacher can use this to examine the multiple viewpoints or perspectives that exist about any situation. The teacher has them look at a local event from the government services' view, the tax payers' view, the developers' view, and the environmentalists' view. Likewise, this educator can have them examine what it takes for someone, a group or a country to join together as the class examines why Sancho joins Don Quixote in his quest. What did Don Quixote promise Sancho? What are other people, groups or countries promised for their union? Do these promises come true? Do these promises come true in in the stated time line such as the week for Sancho to get his governorship of an island? Similarly, as they discern that Don Quixote is a dreamer while Sancho is a realist, they can be asked when people need to be dreamers and when they need to be realists. They can identify people in politics who are dreamers and who are realist. They may find some people who can combine both.

Just as these social social students who have experienced Don Quixote have learned that literature has much to do with their classroom learning, students in other classes can have the same experience when teachers select multi-dimensional literature that explores several critical aspects of the subject. These students will be able to look at their subject's ideas through a different lens and therefore, learn it more deeply and more thoroughly.

Dr. Harry Grover Tuttle focuses on assessing and improving student learning through low- and high-tech tools.

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