Okay, before we debate whether it is an appropriate analogy (ELT and the Matrix as we saw it in that majorly cool flick) or has any direct relevance, let's run through a quick checklist for you...
1. Have you ever found yourself in a classroom where the walls shimmered and began streaming code? Perhaps down one side of the room you saw code that was eerily reminiscent of your coursebooks, while down the other side flowed snippets of your certification training, reminding you of the precise ways in which learning and teaching are supposed to operate. There on the back wall, with the clearest view, perhaps you saw the streaming torrent of "relevant" MOE guidelines and testing criteria...
2. Between classes, your head perched up between the palms of your hands, have you started to see cryptic messages glide across your lesson plan notes?
3. Has a Smith-like figure ever appeared and chased you out onto a ledge, then given you a good talking-to in a windowless white room, reminding you that the cryptic messages you've started seeing during your breaks are coming from some sort of major criminal, while going over a meticulously well documented list of some of your previous "misdemeanors" as a teacher?
4. Have you ever been remotely tempted to follow that white rabbit, and see just how deep the hole goes?
5. Have you ever seen learners bend spoons purely with their minds, directly challenging everything you've been conditioned to believe is possible or appropriate? Did it fascinate you or terrify you?
6. Did you ever get the feeling that, once you realised so much of the stuff around you was not actually real - just virtual, you could slow things down at will and even dodge bullets?
Right then, if you've experienced anything even slightly similar to some of the things in our checklist, and by some bizarre turn of fate you DID end up seated in that armchair opposite Morpheus, in all honesty - which pill would you choose?
Red or blue?
(Just in case you've forgotten, the blue pill guarantees a return to the world as you previously knew it).
:-)
