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Hello-

In a few days I will be giving a guest lecture about Alexander the Great at my old high school. The students I will be speaking to are between 14 and 15 years old with very little background on ancient Greek history. I am very excited to do this and have been thinking about what I'm going to do and planning it for many weeks now. The talk will last around 40 minutes. I've currently written a brief outline of the major events in Alexander's life and campaign. I also want to touch on the character of Alexander and his legacy. And finally, at the end, open the floor up to questions.

Now I don't want to rush the career of Alexander, nor do I want to downplay any of his achievements. I do know that it will be impossible to give his life justice within a 40 minute time frame. But I also want to leave a lasting impression of Alexander on these young minds, or at least I hope to.

I welcome any suggestions any of you might have. What is the best way to approach this? Am I trying to do too much in the given time? Should I focus my lecture on a few main topics? And so on.

Thanks

Greetings,

What is the purpose fo the lecture? Is it for a history class? A political class?
The type of class might determine the focus of your presentation.

I have found with some general classes with young people, it helps to introduce them to the overall accomplishment of Alexander (the scope of his domain, etc) at the end of his life, then immediatley move to his yourh, since the students can more easily identify with a young Alexander, yet at the same time be inspired by what he accomplished even in his youth..

Please tell us more about the lecture!

Regards,
Sikander

Great suggestions. Thanks!

The class is a basic history of western civilization. The purpose of the lecture can really be anything. The teacher basically let me choose what I wanted to talk about, so I obviously picked Alexander. The students have little experience with ancient Greek history, so this lecture will introduce them to Alexander.

I want to do a condensed version of his campaign and accomplishments, highlighting the main and impressive points, but I also want to talk about the personality and character. I'm just not sure if I can do it all in 40 minutes and still allow time for questions.