Is it wrong for a teacher to be boring?

I walked into a language arts teacher's classroom and he vented about the lesson, "Kids just aren't at all engaged.  It's just not motivating them."

"What are you teaching?" I ask.

"Well, it's folklore and lengend.  We have to do the story of Paul Bunyan."

"What's not to love about that?" I ask. 

He eyes me suspciously, assuming I am being sarcastic.  "Seriously, I like that story for so many reasons. But tell me about the lesson." 

"Well, I should have done the movie like other teachers." 

"Do you mean they created a movie about it?"

"No, they watched a cartoon version of the story." 

"Did they analyze the difference between the two?  Did they find elements of stereotyping in the cartoon?"

"No, they just watched it I think." 

"So what did you do?"

"Posters," he explained.  "Which I thought they would like.  But I'm beginning to realize that it just wasn't at all interesting to them." 

"What would you have done?"

"I think I would have had them analyze the man vs. machine motif.  Then I'd talk about the social structures of the day and the assumption that an African-American was just a source of labor . . . You know, the whole criticism you hear from DuBois.  I might start a debate about whether he was a hero or an anti-hero or maybe a debate about the role of technology in our society.  How does it dehumanize people?  How does it transform us into machines?  Are we the machines? Are we androids?" 

He looks at me as if I am crazy; as if I had just explained why I believe that the Tooth Fairy is real.  "You got all that from one legend.  John, I think it's just a story. Besides, I really think kids would be bored with that." 

Which got me thinking.  He might be right.  They might be bored.  We live in a culture of entertainment.  Maybe being relevant to junior highers means showing a cartoon or passing out markers for posters.  Perhaps my ideas really are boring. 

Yet, I think that there is a paradox at hand in education.  The harder teachers try not to be boring the more boring they become.  Students want to engage in a controversial discussion.  They want to think about deeper things in life. Most students desire depth.  They want to explore challenging questions.  I think students are more motivated by meaning and purpose than they are by cartoons, posters or gold stickers.  In the end, if we want to have students engaged, the answer might be in giving them a strong reason to stay engaged and proving that what they are learning relates to their lives.