"Oedipus Rex" dramatizes a collision of past, present, and future. Once Oedipus recognizes the connection between the past and his horrific present, he stabs out his eyes, ashamed at what he has wrought and unwilling to look upon his future. The 21st-century English language arts classroom is in the midst of a collision as well. Coming into conflict are canonical texts, the traditional literacies of the English classroom, and the needs of the 21st-century world. The author discusses how he helps students use texts such "Oedipus" to collaborate, innovate, and create--three skills that will "separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century and those who are not". The author describes how he teaches "Oedipus Rex" in a way that helps students develop "new literacies, performance knowledge, and multimodal learning strategies" that they will need in the 21st-century workplace.