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As you may be able to tell, our class has now reached the era of the #RussianRevolution
So, continuing our exploration of student #cultural #literacy (as always: descriptive, not prescriptive!):
1) As I expected, "Battleship Potemkin" was something completely new to them. They were suitably moved by the famous scene on the Odessa steps
https://archive.org/details/BattleshipPotemkin
(but why I did I first have to admonish a couple of them focused on their laptops or phones to turn toward the screen? WTF)
1/n
If "Battleship Potemkin" meant nothing to our students, then they were certainly not aware of Eisenstein's great "October," either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k62eaN9-TLY
I hinted that, when their cultural tastes had further matured, I might at last introduce them to
"Aelita Queen of Mars" (1924) 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014646/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl
3/n
But back to issues of students' cultural literacy, for lack of a better term (as noted, always descriptive rather than prescriptive)
Today, re: Bolshevik Revolution
One had an idea of housing blocks & monumental architecture
The rest: pretty much: 0
I noted opinion polls showing that students/young people had more positive views of socialism vs. capitalism--which I found interesting insofar as they had 0 knowledge of Marxism, socialist theory, revolutionary history
All instructive!
4/n
@CitizenWald They have an intimate knowledge of capitalism, though.
Indeed! As I told them, though, historical context varies:
Today: shitloads of college debt, prospect they won't live quite as well as their parents
Back then: my grandfather got shitloads of banknotes, filled a wheelbarrow, and rushed to the bakery before they had lost half their value.
Or: some years later: went without work and pay.
(Of course, I also talked to them about long-term structural and cyclical issues and validated the importance of subjective experience)