I was gobsmacked on Friday when something happened for the first time in 10+ years of teaching: A student produced a reasonable definition of the word canonical.  It was a first-year student, in a composition class.

And how did the young scholar know this term?  Through the concept of canon in the Star Wars universe.

All of a sudden the 5-yr-old’s action figures, DVR-ed Clone Wars episodes, and novelizations were redeemed–a little–in A’s eyes.