An Iowa teacher who includes “The Odyssey” as required reading in her World Literature class says she’s excited to hear her students’ reactions to the blockbuster movie of the summer.
Rochelle Auchenbach, an English teacher at Spencer High School, includes “The Odyssey” in a unit about ancient heroes. “It has so many great themes in it that are just universal,” she said, “that still resonate.”
“The Odyssey” was written about 3000 years ago. Auchenbach describes it as a collection of chapters or episodes. “Scholars would say that it has sort of led into how we do TV now, which would make sense if this was the oral tradition, so each night you get a little different piece of story and it’s kind of complete,” she said, “…but still there’s an overarching story with character growth and all the cool stuff.”
Auchenbach asks her students to compare “The Odyssey” as an original source and how it’s adapted in modern works, like the hit Disney series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”
“To this day, 2026, this is how we still tell stories. What’s happening? What choices we make? Who is helping us along the way? What do we learn? How do we grow?” Auchenbach said. “…I think it’s always a great thing when modern story tellers look to the classics because they’re always relevant and they’re always interesting.”
Iowa academic standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History do not require that “The Odyssey” to be taught, but the standards say high school students in Iowa “are expected to be attentive readers who understand and enjoy complex works of literature.”
It cost $250 million to make “The Odyssey” movie and it has had nearly $640 million in ticket sales worldiwde in its first two weeks of release.
(by George Bower, KICD, Spencer)