# 414: Highly Recommended: Play the Whole Game

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-spark-creativity-teacher-podcast-ela-743282/414-highly-recommended-play-the-whole-game.md
Podcast: [The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-spark-creativity-teacher-podcast-ela-743282)
Published: 2026-02-25T14:54:00+00:00
Episode link: https://sparkcreativity.libsyn.com/414-highly-recommended-play-the-whole-game
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sparkcreativity/the_whole_game_full.mp3?dest-id=518145
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-spark-creativity-teacher-podcast-ela-743282/episodes/414-highly-recommended-play-the-whole-game
Duration seconds: 280

## Resource

This week would be my Dad's birthday. If he was still here, spice cake with thick caramel frosting would be in order, and a beautiful cross country ski outing through the snowy forests of Duluth. He taught sociology at the University of Minnesota when I was growing up. Once, while teaching a weekly three-hour Monday-night class, he dressed as a different famous sociologist every week to help get his students interested in the history of his discipline. Isn't that nice? Over the course of his career, he was voted both adviser and professor of the year at the university by his students. There was always a new sociology book lying around our house, with half the text underlined and his untidy notes scrawled in the margins. Whatever had just come out, he had it. He crafted new courses about the civil rights movement, religion in Northern Minnesota, and corporate corruption, to name a few, trying to make sure his classes taught both what he thought was important for students to know more about AND what was current and interesting to them. He took his students to Chicago by train over spring break many times to study the city and its neighborhoods, arranging police ride-alongs (since many of his students were planning to become police officers) and museum visits. He offered extra credit to anyone who would challenge social convention and stand up on a public bus to sing the National Anthem. More than one student boarded a bus with a friend ready to videotape and then changed their mind, realizing just how strong the pull of convention really is. He invited students to examine the role of technology in their lives - way before rejecting screens was all the rage - with his assignment to watch someone else watching T.V. for an hour. I thought about Dad this month as I read Harv…

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