This image is more to Khushwant Singh's credit than to Ang Lee's! Singh in one of the interviews mentioned what makes a good article. His answer was simple. It should inform, it should provoke and/or it should entertain.

Let's apply Singh's criteria of provoking, informing and entertaining to a non-textual medium. The PIE principle, you may say.

This is the clip from Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. Even on its 86th year, it is as fresh and relevant as when it came first. It is entertaining, being so Chaplinesque. Does it inform? Yes, about exploitation, impending automation, mass manufacturing, about class struggle. On serious re-watch, It also provokes the mind about the gradual degeneration of human values, crumbling of societal institutions, and struggle for sustenance.

Kasparov's matches against Deep Blue and Deep Thought , A R Rahman's Gurus of Peace

or Feynman's Ode to a Flower

all pass the muster.

Why can't we apply the same PIE principle for the thoughts and things we intend to bring in the classrooms? Whether I am using a toy, a model, a game, a wordplay, a song, a speech or a simple presentation, do I manage to provoke, inform, entertain my learners?

Freeman Tilden also spoke about this provocation. That is for another story.