"This is the end..."

I want to write about the effect of increased youth isolation, and the impact pop music and youth culture has on these teens.

There can be no doubt that the media has played an ever-increasing role in this transition in our society. A study from just two years ago showed that the average teen in America spends approximately 42 hours a week in front of a screen of some sort (TV, computer, game systems). This did not include school time or time on their cell phones. That is the equivalent of a full-time job!

Previous generations did not have this same level of screen time. Sure, there have always been couch potatoes out there, but it was never encourage in the way it is today. Because of other societal changes over the last 40 years, particularly the increased number of female heads of households, women in the workplace, and the smaller number of children per household, there are more children unsupervised at home for more hours than ever before.

In many cases, the parents or guardians are at work before the children leave for school and/or do not get home until well after the kids have gotten home. For safety reasons, many parents do not want their children to go anywhere, but instead instruct them to stay home and keep out of trouble.

For many kids, this means time on the computer or watching TV, and often both simultaneously. Of course, for lots of them, they are also listening to their iPods or watching videos on TV or the computer during this leisure time.

Okay, so what does this have to do with us as teachers? Lots. Simply put, we have a ton of students who are very street smart in some ways, but socially retarded in others. Generations of American kids learned socialization skills not through “play dates,” but rather by heading to the playground after school and playing with whoever showed up. They learned how to get along with children who were older, younger, and different in many other ways.

Today, you can take a drive after school through whatever city or suburb you teach in, and you’ll see the parks are absolutely abandoned. Not a kid anywhere, unless it is an organized practice with lots of adults around. That is another thing missing from the socialization experiences for many of today’s students; they don’t have as many opportunities for unsupervised play, where they learn how to negotiate situations on their own, resolve differences, collaborate, cooperate, and even compromise.

Okay, back to the impact of media on these kids. When you spend a lot of time alone in your room, and much of your most meaningful human interaction takes place online, you end up feeling disconnected. When it is all you know, though, it doesn’t seem “wrong,” it just seems inadequate. Something is missing. You’re lonely. You’re frustrated by your teachers, your parents, your bratty younger sibling. You’re horny. You’re a teenager. And even if you are able to articulate these feelings via texting or Facebook chat, or wherever, you’re still missing the real time, face-to-face communication that delivers a far more satisfying validation (through body language alone), than any emoticons can deliver online.

So your loneliness/frustrations grow. Your outlets seem limited. You turn to what you find online, on TV, in music for some solace or understanding. Don’t get me wrong – this is not the first generation to look to popular music for validation of its feelings. But this may be the first to do it in the vacuum of their own experience, without sharing it communally.

This has spawned a ton of songs. While songs of teen loneliness and frustration used to center on unrequited love, a broken heart because your girl/guy wasn’t “true,” or other teen drama, now it is just as often about the lameness of life itself. So many songs decry the values of this society, and espouse a hopelessness that asks, explicitly or implicitly, “What’s the point of it all?”

For many kids, they cannot answer the question satisfactorily. This dark outlook has contributed to the epidemic of dropouts in this country, and some social scientists even point to certain subgenres of pop music as playing a role in the increase in teen suicide attempts.

Yes, I know that there have been suicide songs for decades. The first one I remember was Simon & Garfunkle’s “Richard Cory.” And while there were others in the 60s and early 70s, they usually didn’t position suicide as an option, but rather as the horrible choice made by someone in a story the song was telling, e.g., “Ode to Billy Joe.”

For the last 35 years, however, there have been more and more songs that are not only about suicide, but actively promoting it as an option – sometimes the only option, including such songs as Ozzie Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution,” Judas Priest’s “Better by You, Better Than Me,” Filter’s “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” and a host of others. Each of these songs was cited as the cause of a young person’s suicide, although the courts routinely have not found in favor of the parents in these sorts of lawsuits.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness points out that individual stresses, acts, or incidents are not truly “the cause” of a suicide attempt, but rather act as triggers for teens who are suffering from a mental or emotional illness, often undiagnosed and untreated, and are often overcome with hopelessness.

As teachers, it is not our job to try to monitor and moderate the music our students listen to, the videos they watch or the games they play. It is our duty, though, to watch them and look for signs of trouble. If you see a troubled kid who is not able to make the same kinds of associations with other students, they are quite possibly feeling disconnected. True, we are not trained psychologists, social workers, or medical professionals, but our schools do have these people on staff. It doesn’t hurt to make a casual referral if you see a student who is hurting, and may hurt themselves.

For all the hours they spend online, they rarely look for help there. Instead, all alone in their rooms, they look for solace, for like-minded kids, and too often, for respite and relief from a source that will usually only make things worse. As educators, we talk so often about academic interventions, but we need to be ready to make other kinds, too.

6/25 Lesson #2

Rationale:
This lesson dovetails with the previous one in that it is designed to help students become more comfortable with creating and sharing content. It is based on the idea of having students integrate the tools they use daily to create something new and share it.

Objectives for Learners
Students will learn how to create and share information quickly and efficiently relying primarily on their own tools.

Materials:
• Computer with internet access;
• Cell phone
• iPod

Anticipatory set
We will watch a few YouTube videos, and the students will rate them based on how well they communicated their messages, production values, etc.
After collecting the students’ ratings, I will explain that they were all made by students using just the tools in their backpacks.

Body of the Lesson:
Most students at Edina High School have very sophisticated cell phones, virtually all are equipped with cameras, many have video capabilities, and most have internet access.

Using just these tools, the students will create either a humorous piece and post it to YouTube or develop a story for the Hornet Report, the school’s TV news program.

They can use their own laptop or computers in my mini-lab to edit their pictures, screen caps, video shots, etc. This should take two class periods.

Closure:
Each student will post their work to the class web site, and we will review them as a class.

Assessment:
Each student’s work will be evaluated based on how well they have composed their story, the completeness of the production, and how well they integrated several tools to tell the story.

6/25 Lesson #1

I had a great time cruising around the internet looking at sites that might work with my classes next year. Most of us don’t get time to do this while we’re teaching, much less when we’re taking a few classes in the summer, so this was guilt-free web surfing, and I loved it.

I started out with a few sites I already knew, but had not been to in a while. Then I used some of the links from the web site for my other class (CI 5410 – Teaching Writing through Digital Storytelling), and that really got me rolling.

One of the sites I have gone to several times this year is for the PEW Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org). It always has something interesting, and a few times I was able to use the results of a study to generate some class interest and discussion.

Rationale:
As far as using it for a lesson based on what we’ve studied so far in this class, I am interested in pursuing what we were talking about last week with multi-modal projects for the students. As one of the most recent studies from the PEW group shows that the majority of teens are creating content beyond their Facebook or MySpace pages.

While the focus of my Mass Media class has been to help students become savvy consumers of media, showing them how to critically analyze the myriad messages with which they are inundated daily, I think I am going to change things up a little next fall. While I’ll still pursue that objective, I will also work at helping the kids prepare for their roles as media content creators.

With that in mind, I have put together a lesson based on using a tool I just started toying with in 5410 called ComicLife (http://plasq.com/downloads). ComicLife lets you quickly and easily create your own comic book or graphic novel, and publish it online. My lesson plan lets the students create an alternative ending to a novel, and use the exercise as an opportunity to further analyze the characters and their actions, and also think critically about their response to the piece and the author’s choices.

Objectives for Learners
Enhance their critical thinking skills through creative adaptation/embellishment of literary characters using ComicLife software.

Materials:
• Computer with internet access and ComicLife software (free downloads are available);
• A copy of the young adult novel, Feed, by M.T. Anderson


Anticipatory set
Students come into class and sit in groups of three and four. When class starts they are shown a few frames from selected graphic novels and comic books on the large screen. Each group is assigned one of the stories and asked to come up with ideas for the next panel. After two minutes they draw their panels on the white board and explain them to the class.

Body of the Lesson:
On the big screen I will demonstrate ComicLife for the students, showing them the basics, plus a few options. Next, they get with their partners and receive the handout with lesson instructions.

Students will come up with an alternate ending that stays true to what we already know about each character, but is significantly different from the book. Once they’ve agreed on the concept for the ending, they can write a script for the characters’ dialogue, as well as the narration boxes. They need to produce from three to five pages of comic panels.

Next they move to the computers and begin putting their stories together using ComicLife, and any other online tools they choose. This will take the rest of the class period, plus one other full day of class.

Closure:
Groups will share their new ComicLife endings with the class, explaining how and why theirs is a feasible alternative.

Assessment:
Each student team will turn in their version of ComicLife for review and assessment. Assessment will be based on completeness, depth of inquiry, appropriateness of the ending, and how well they communicated their points.

Assignment #2: Film music analysis

Rationale:
Whereas music in movies once provided contextual clues relating to the general mood of the scene, for the last several decades many directors have transitioned from the old Hollywood methods of scoring a film with orchestral passages and instead their soundtracks use contemporary pop music. The songs are selected not only to convey mood, but to move the plot or character development forward. For most of the audience, these songs carry specific meaning, and will inform the characters and their choices in the way narration or an expository speech by a character would in an earlier era.

This assignment asks students to examine the use of pop music and analyze its influence in contemporary film. The purpose is for them to gain a better grasp of the multi-layered contextualization provided by pop music and how and why directors make these choices. I plan to use this lesson in my Art of Film class next year.

Objective:
Students will understand the impact of pop music on film and the ways authors/directors use it to enhance the audience’s understanding of plot and character development.

Anticipatory Set:
At the beginning of class the students will watch a series of clips from movies (some familiar, some not). These clips will all feature familiar music, though. After watching, they’ll be asked to recall as many of the songs as possible, then remark on the feelings evoked by the songs.

Mini-lesson:
Brief lecture on the history of music in film, starting with the in-theater accompaniment during the silent film era using everything from small orchestras to organs. Focus on the use of patriotic music for war films until the movies made about the Viet Nam war.

Examples:
Distribute sample lyric sheets that accompany clips from Coming Home, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Full Metal Jacket. Discuss how specific songs and lyrics are used to direct the viewer’s attention or emotions beyond simple mood setting to specific character or plot developments (e.g., the use of The Doors’ The End in Apocalypse Now).

Assignment:
Students will select a movie of their own and:
• Select a scene;
• Describe how the music in this scene affects the viewer;
• Provide an analysis of how it moves the plot or character development; and
• Find another song that would accomplish the same task.

Assignment #1: Make a video

NOTE: Okay, this one is a bit lengthy. For my own purposes I included the outline for the whole unit (I needed to do this for September anyway). The rationale is up front, followed by the lesson plan and the assignment is at the end, so feel free to skip down there.

Next fall I will teach a Mass Media Studies class, and I plan to revamp the curriculum this summer. The same person taught it for ten years, and most of her materials and lessons never changed. I will spend July giving it a total overhaul including a new focus. Instead of concentrating on the history of mass media, we will briefly examine a timeline of developments, but then hone in on the current applications, their impact on society, and where we may be headed next.

When it comes to music, most of my students rarely stray from the mainstream. Their exposure to contemporary pop music comes from a very narrow stream of sources, particularly considering all the various vehicles made available by technology. Their usual consumption patterns are limited to listening to their iPods and Top Ten pop radio stations, watching some videos on BET, VH1, and the various MTV channels, and spending time searching for and watching videos on YouTube.


Assignment #1 Rationale
One assignment I will have them do next year is the creation of a music video. First, we will study the conventions of music videos, from the early promotional versions that were shipped only to clubs to show between bands or dj sets, through the beginning of MTV, up to the winners of this year’s VMAs. My goal is to get them to think critically about them, removing their own biases regarding artists and musical genres, and instead consider them through a series of critical lenses.

Next, they will select a song and produce a new music video to go with it. The object of this exercise is for them to wrestle with the challenges of multi-model communication, develop communication skills that go beyond creating traditional texts, and gain a greater appreciation for the sophistication of today’s artists. The only limits I will put on their creativity are those required by the school district regarding depictions of violence and drug use, as well as my own admonishments regarding the use of clichés or stereotypes.

My rationale for this assignment is that I want the students to become more than just passive consumers of music videos. I want them to consider that every one they see has gone through not only a multistage creative development cycle, but also has experienced the mediation and articulation steps discussed last week in our blogs. By becoming active participants who have to navigate through the technical elements of developing a digital re-mix project, as well as negotiating the meaning-making aspects with their partners, they will come to a fuller understanding of just what is happening every time they watch one on TV or on their computer.

Music Video Lesson Plan

Day One: Music Video Unit Intro
Icebreaker activity: Divide into groups of 3, then show a :30 music video compilation featuring clips from approximately 45 different songs. Groups write down all the ones they know. Show it a second time, then let them finish their lists. See which group gets the most right.

Mini-lesson: Brief lecture on the history of music videos, including timeline and samples of early videos.

Writing activity: Students write about their top three all-time favorite videos, explaining why they made the list. Make sure they understand we are not making a list of the three greatest videos, but rather their own personal favorites.

Discussion: Small group sharing of lists and reasons, then agree on the best three from their group and write them on the board.

Large group discussion of the videos listed, pros and cons, similarities and differences. Introduce discussion of stereotypes, misogyny and homophobia in music videos.

Day Two: Music Video Unit
Video of the day: Watch Dreamscape 3

Day Three: Music Video Unit
Writing activity: Students write a reaction to the previous day’s video. It is an intense piece that leaves them stunned, and with 24 hours to reflect on it, they will be able to write both a personal reflection and an analysis on the “fairness” of the piece.

Mini-lesson: Brief lecture on the technology and techniques of making music videos, including clips of examples. Explain the differences between straightforward performances, narratives that are literal matches to the lyrics, as well as more conceptual executions.

Discussion: Follow-up discussion of stereotypes, misogyny and homophobia in music videos. Introduction of discussion of stereotypes of rap and hip-hop videos.

Day Four: Music Video Unit
Video of the day: Watch Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes

Day Five: Music Video Unit
Writing activity: Again, students produce a quick write with their response to the previous day’s video.

Project Intro: Assign groups for the project.
Distribute assignment sheets, timeline, and grading rubric.
Explain the project, answer questions, get them started.

Days Six – Nine: Music Video Unit
Work on their projects.

Day Ten: Music Video Unit
Student presentations

I used to be disgusted, now I just try to be amused.

I can’t remember how far I got into this chapter before I flipped to the front of the book to see the publishing date. Yikes! 1996? Even if it was 2006, so much has transpired since then that the book would be obsolete, but taking us back that far? I felt as if I was examining original texts in a humanities class, only this was not like reading the original Federalist Papers.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest I can go on and discuss mediations. Simply put, I like the concept. In English Ed, we often talk about the different lenses we use to sift through information. We understand the need to become critical thinkers by setting aside those filters (and the biases they inevitably house), and evaluating a text for what is there, and not for how we might feel about the protagonist’s choices, The point is, it is the author making those choices, not an inanimate creation of that author.

With the mediation of music, much more of that is going on today at the front end than when this piece was written. The market researchers have tested and tweaked down to .001 of a percent, so the original inspiration and intent of an artist is often nowhere to be found in the work. This can be the result of the mediation of social relationships. I much appreciated where the author writes about how “no music will ever simply ‘reflect’ a society, but instead be caught within, arise out of and refer to a web of unequal social relationships and power struggles.”

Next year when I teach the unit on rap and hip-hoop, I think we will examine this closely. The power struggles and unequal relationships (and access) were originally a big part of the lyrical content of early rap, but now they have been replaced by songs about sexual dominance and posturing about the thug life. Often my students who are rap and hip-hop fans will say that these songs simply reflect reality. We usually get into a discussion about whose reality, and how are the viewers of the videos to discern what is real and what is put on?

In most cases, no one actually lives their daily lives the way the hip-hop stars show it in the videos. Instead, it is a teenage fantasy gone wild, with hot cars, hotter women, cold champagne and nothing but time to brag about the women you’ve had and the men you’ve defeated. This mediation has happened at several levels, starting with the A&R guys at the record labels who only sign young rap artists who can spit about these very things. As one says in the Byron Hurt video, Hip-Hop; Beyond Rhymes and Rhythm, “If I say something righteous, no one wants to hear that today and I’ll never get signed.”

This is a mindset that the record labels do not deny, although they continue to produce albums from more thoughtful rappers and hip-hop artists, from Talib Qwali and Common to The Roots.

I wanted to address what the author and Frith have to say about segmenting the radio audience. Frith writes that competition between commercial stations results in attempts to “freeze the audience into a series of market tastes.” This was chilling to me, because just a generation ago the radio was the place for teens to search out new music, become more knowledgeable about a band, its personnel, and their worldview. Each station had its own personality, and listeners were loyal to that and not as much to the individual DJs. Not so today. The ramifications are far reaching for the music industry.

First, listeners are not as knowledgeable about the artists and their songs. They may know them only from the sound of their voices or instruments, instead of knowing about their background, family, etc., which sets today’s audience apart from those in the 70s and 80s. This has resulted in a decrease in listenership for stations and lower music sales for the recording companies.

Another way this book is dated is the way the author talks about public radio and its programming choices. Things have changed since then, so while the book seems to indicate that public radio cannot successfully manage to “provide an arena where a plurality of musics can coexist and where newer sounds can get some exposure,” the fact is that is exactly what is happening today. The Current enjoys almost scary levels of listener loyalty, and always makes its goal during pledge drives. One reason is its unwavering dedication to providing the greatest range of music, both local and otherwise. Negus talks about the public radio stations needing to devote a large part if its airtime to the most successful chart-based music, but this doesn’t happen here. Instead, The Current provides hours of music from bands few people but the DJs themselves have heard before.

The portion of the chapter on music videos was good. I have my students make these after studying the business, and I am looking for ways to improve the assignment. Next year I will work with them to make sure they understand Goodwin’s three concepts that inform sound and image; illustration, amplification, and disjuncture. I will want to make sure they understand the ways videos are made now, and especially the way they are watched.

Most students claim they might watch a video just once, but will listen to it every time it comes on MTV. Some of the boy are especially less involved in the graphic elements, and just want to hear the music while they are dong other things. Because they are usually engaged in texting or Facebook while online (which is where most teens watch TV, except for specific shows), the boys are often oblivious to the way women are treated in these videos. Is this due to manipulation by someone along the line, or are the girls simply conditioned to hold it together?

You may say I’m a dreamer…

Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil once said, “All politics is local.” He meant that even if the U.S. Senate is wrangling over international policy, ultimately it comes down to what the voters back home think about the various proposals. That is, if those senators want to get re-elected. By the same token, after reading Chapter 11 one could argue that all music is national.

While this chapter was a bit dense, its ideas are not that complex. Negus simply wants us to reconsider how we regard music, especially when it comes to how it is distributed and ultimately how it is mediated and articulated. There is nothing new about music being made to be political outside the sphere of the original intent of its creator. I disagree, however, that we cannot or should not attempt to discern that original intent. True, we bring our own thoughts and experiences, even biases, to such an undertaking, but as long as we are aware of this, we can at least make an attempt to do it as objectively as possible.

For example, when John Lennon released “Imagine,” it was a big hit, but also very controversial. The Viet Nam War was still going strong, but public support for it was lower than ever in this country. At the time, I was 12 years old and completely dedicated to all kinds of music, especially rock. My favorite activity was to catch a bus to Lake Street and visit The Wax Museum, where I would spend hours reading album covers and liner notes in an attempt to learn as much as I could about the various artists and producers. I usually ended my visit purchasing an album or two and at least two magazines (usually Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy).

By then I had read almost everything ever written about the Beatles, especially John Lennon. Granted, I was making my evaluations based on the writings of others, along with my own prejudices. When I heard “Imagine,” however, I knew it was a very different kind of song. An important song. An anthem for the ages. I was thrilled one day when I arrived at my Catholic elementary school to discover that we were going to study the song. Let’s just say that the nun taking us through this exercise would have given Herr Goebbels a run for the money to be named as Minister of Propaganda.

As 6th graders, when we analyzed the song we did not allow for mediation and articulation. Now I can look back and see that the school was attempting to do the same thing as the malevolent states, only on a tiny scale. Even though we were supposed to be deconstructing and analyzing the lyrics ourselves, we really were just being told what to think about the song.

As a Mass Media studies teacher, I also have students analyze pop music. While I have never approached it from this angle, I may want to try it next year. The students have already learned about the big media conglomerates, as well as the unhealthy relationship between the radio networks and the recording companies. The students understand how the current set-up is more about marketability and less about aesthetic quality, so they should be ready to tackle this particular theory and approach. I would want them to be able to identify how songs are mediated between the time the composer writes it and when it is ultimately recorded and distributed.

Also, I wanted to integrate into the curriculum some specifics regarding how some in power still want to take a song and co-opt it for their own political purposes. While there are tons of examples, one of my favorites is when Ronald Reagan’s re-election machine was gearing up, they attempted to get the rights to Bruce Springsteen’s song, “Born in the USA.” Actually, they just started using it without permission, and when he heard about it, Springsteen slapped them with a cease and desist order.

Apparently, no one in the West Wing had bothered to check the lyrics, or else they would have discovered that it was an anti-Viet Nam war screed. While the Reagan team was unsuccessful in articulating this song as a pro-America patriotic anthem, the attempt was there. I would want my students to learn from this example, and then research some other attempts at mediation and articulation, including appropriating a song for commercial purposes (which ultimately are political in nature).

Few in this class will remember when the Beatles song “Revolution” first came blaring from a TV as part of an ad campaign for Nike. This was an articulation of the highest order, primarily because they were taking the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and applying them unapologetically and with all seriousness to a new running shoe. To me, that marked the end. After that, I was no longer inspired to be in advertising, and moved out of the industry as quickly as I could.

Finally, I thought the portion of the chapter discussing the use of quotas by nations attempting to hang onto their cultural-specific music was interesting. It is difficult to imagine such an effort here. I can see it happening on a smaller scale, especially with the music of certain cultural groups, but I think the USA is too attached to the First Amendment to ever go along with mandated quotas regarding what we get to listen to during our own time.

and the beat goes on....

Of all the types of Hollywood teacher representations listed by Shannon and Crawford, I think Jack Black's character of Dewey Finn is most likely an Agent of Social Change. At the same time, he also embodies The Loner fighting "against the often-oppressive school to help their students."

While he is presented as the irresponsible outcast during the opening minutes, once he gets in front of the children, he suddenly has a mission and a reason for coming to school beyond scamming some rent cash. Where School of Rock departs from Shannon and Crawford is that it doesn't show Dewey Finn as a teacher who is robbed of a life outside school, but rather his life outside school is what informs his life and passion in the school.

The social change Finn is after is to educate the kids about the importance of "sticking it to the man." Okay, so it isn't exactly Ben Kingsley in "Gandhi," but as my favorite radio personality used to say, "accept the premise, and you'll enjoy the bit." For teachers, that is a bit more difficult than for the general audience. No way such a thing could ever happen, right? But once you get past that, the movie works on several levels.

One of the value assumptions that underlie the portrayal of Dewey Finn in School of Rock is that teachers who relate well with kids and connect with them on a cultural level are unacceptable to parents and administrators. This assumption is reinforced by the speech the principal makes to him about not being taken seriously unless you stop being “fun” and are a bitch. While the movie's basic premise is beyond ridiculous, it does hew closely to its mantra of “stick it to the man.” By extension, being rebellious is not only fun, but liberating.

The children were set free from the drudgery of conventional school days and methods of learning, the parents were forced to reconsider their narrow points of view, and the two uptight females were given the opportunity to either embrace the value of the school of rock, or be permanently uncool.

In this movie, the use of pop music most certainly buttresses the type of Agent of Change. Most of the songs used are songs celebrating rebelling "against the man" in order to follow the rock dream. The song that best exemplifies this and demonstrates the value of this, as well as the role of the Agent of Change, is the song written by the guitar playing student. It reminded my of a song written and performed by one of my sons when he was in a high school punk band. It was a screed against his high school, with lyrics like: "I don't care anymore, you're wasting my time, the thing that I have the least of...."

The fact that Zach the guitar player is able to move from a boy who is completely under the controlling thumb of his father to a guy who not only can identify and articulate his frustrations, but can put them into song, is attributable directly to Dewey Finn. While the movie is obviously not realistic, it still reinforces the audience's idea that teachers can (should?) inspire kids to not only learn, but move to a place where the education goes beyond the curriculum and into managing feelings and relationships in their homes. I think this falls more into the category of mystifying, not clarifying, the teaching profession and life in the schools.

A Disaster of Allenesque Proportion

Just a couple years after Leslie Gore’s “It’s My Party” peaked on the charts, Irwin Allen introduced a TV show called “The Time Tunnel.” Its premise was that two scientists (one played by former teen idol James Darren) were stuck in a time travel experiment gone wrong. They would get zapped to an earlier age, find themselves in the midst of some historical event, and for the next 48 minutes they would battle evil in its various guises, from murderous cavemen to Hitler Youth. Inevitably captured, just as they were to be dispatched, their colleagues back at the lab would find their coordinates and attempt to bring them back. Of course, they could never quite get them back to the 60s, and so we would see them arrive in some precarious situation in another age, and in true cliffhanger fashion, we would have to wait a week to find out how they would escape.

Allen was known for his sensationalistic movies and television programs, but while they were lowbrow, they were also incredibly popular. If you look at his body of work, you see that while he started off producing adaptations of works by such respected authors as Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, his projects became increasingly sensationalistic, and required less and less of the viewer.

Allen went from “The Lost World” to “Time Tunnel” and eventually to such campy enterprises as “Lost in Space” and “Land of the Giants.” While the technological improvements in the production of TV shows was growing almost exponentially, his programming endeavored to shoot for the lowest common denominator, and once it latched onto that audience, proceeded to drag them down even more.

If we track the music video industry and its portrayal of women, it follows an eerily similar arc. Leslie Gore and her contemporaries were the very picture of innocence and even purity. As the sexual revolution of the late 60s and 70s took root, however, the way women were portrayed changed significantly, first in the movies, and eventually on TV and especially in music videos.

At the same time that the sexual revolution was in full swing (wow, that was an awful pun – sorry), the women’s movement was also making major inroads. Traditional gender roles were being called into question, and people, especially those who were mainstream and over 30, were left with a lot of questions. Rather than risk alienating its audience, Hollywood simply stopped making as many movies featuring strong women characters, and instead reverted back to the days of the Westerns when women were either whores or one-dimensional women of virtue. Even Hollywood’s biggest stars took roles as prostitutes (e.g., Jane Fonda in Klute). There were very few good comedy roles for them because most people just weren’t laughing yet about the struggle between the sexes.

Meanwhile, music videos were born as a way for the record companies to promote their acts, usually shown at clubs and concerts between the live acts. Then in 1981, MTV blazed onto the scene, just as cable TV was starting to penetrate more and more households. At first, most videos on MTV were simple performance videos or stylized acting out of the lyrics, but within the first year, a few rock bands realized this was a new way to reach the most active record buyers – teenage boys. To get and keep their attention, most bands started featuring women in their videos, and the race to the bottom was off to a roaring start.

Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” and the J. Geils Band’s “Angel is a Centerfold” were two of the best examples. Soon, however, the gyrating, semi-clad women in the videos were not even central to the “story” of the song, but were simply eye candy for the viewers.

When rap and hip-hop became more popular, the artists started taking it to extremes. The women were reduced to booty-shaking accessories for the men in the videos. The all-time low may have been reached in Nelly’s video for the song “Tip Drill” when a woman is completely objectified, even to the point of having a man swipe his credit card down her butt crack.

So if this is what the men are doing in music videos, what about the women? Unfortunately, the expectations are that women will go along with this teenage boy fantasy, even if the record buyers are predominantly female. Early on, Madonna’s fans were overwhelmingly female, yet she displayed her body in a way that not only appealed to males, but also sent the message to her young female fans that their bodies were their number one asset, and they had better learn how to use them.

This has persisted to today. Britney Spears’ latest single, “If You Seek Amy,” is a thinly veiled come-on, and shows her as a woman on the hunt for sex. Obviously, L’il Kim’s work is meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator, as well.

Even artists who previously eschewed such techniques are now laying on the makeup, putting on the push-up bras and slutting it up for their videos. If Leslie Gore fell into the Time Tunnel, she wouldn’t believe where we’ve ended up now.

A Curriculum Proposal

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

TO: Principal Snyder
FR: Joe Deckenbach
RE: A Curriculum Proposal


The proposed changes to our Language Arts curriculum are understandable, considering the community’s concern over standardized test results from the last two years. District leadership and the school board are under significant pressure to make immediate adjustments and show results before enrollment is affected by families that start voting with their feet.

While initiating such changes may give the superintendent the coverage she needs with the local media and the more activist segments of the parents organization, the reality is that most of the districts that have adopted these types of curriculum revision have not been able to gain the desired improvements in test scores.

A “back to basics” approach is not inherently bad. As a language arts teacher, I agree with some of the goals espoused by those who advocate for curriculum that will help students to read and write better. The way to achieve that, however, is not necessarily through an approach that stresses only the old methods. Instead, research indicates that one of the most effective ways to improve reading scores is to help the struggling reader engage with texts. A technique that I employed when I was teaching Read 180 to high school sophomores was to use contemporary pop music that related directly to the text(s) to get the students’ attention, and often to get them to write a response based on their experiences with that particular artist or genre of music. By tying their responses to the actual text, it convinced many of the reluctant readers to give the book a chance.

Another problem with the “back to basics” mindset is that it often ignores what is actually going on in some schools that teach the basics. For example, a charter school that draws a significant percentage of its students from our district offers a classical education. Its students learn Latin and study the ancient Greek philosophers, while also engaging in aggressive math and science programs. In each discipline, particularly their Humanities courses, they focus heavily on reading and writing, often using original texts in lieu of textbooks. All this can be learned from the school’s web site, as well as their track record in standardized tests, which regularly trump those of the some of the best public schools in the state.

What is not shown on the web site, though, is that its teachers often integrate modern pop music into their lessons. They have come to recognize that their students have an easier time making connections from the ancient world to today when they can relate it to their own lives. Nothing is as personal and immediate for teens as “their” music, and when you can help them connect common themes from Athens to Compton, they become more enthusiastic about learning.

For our school district, I recommend that we continue not only to use pop music in our classrooms, but also to teach about pop music. If students learn about the craft behind the music they enjoy, they will come to appreciate it fully. Not only that, but they will come to a deeper understanding of the influence pop music has had on other parts of American life.

The impact of pop music on contemporary culture, from movies to literature, to the commercials we're exposed to daily, is incalculable. It is so pervasive, that we tend not to even notice it. Yet, it has its effect.

When teaching literature, it is essential to provide students with sufficient contextual background from which they can make meaning of the texts as they encounter them. For example, when reading Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” today’s high school students would not be able to get the full benefit of the author’s vision without having some knowledge and understanding of the Harlem Renaissance and American jazz and blues.

While many would approach the text with some understating of who Langston Hughes was and his contributions from having experienced his work year after year during February, if they haven’t learned about Louis Armstrong, they would never be able to understand the importance of the inclusion of “Black and Blue” in the earliest part of the novel.

Finally, I believe our calling includes preparing these students to not only do well on standardized tests, but to be able to take what they have learned and be successful in college. Knowing how to read and write well is extremely important, but having these skills without the ability to understand the world and its expression through music is a hollow victory.

I strongly advocate that we continue to develop our curriculum in a way that embraces youth culture and pop music, and enables the students to improve their technical skills by applying them to these, the areas of their lives that are most dynamic and hold the greatest interest for them.

Getting Crabby at Graff

I thought the Gerald Graff article, “Clouding the Issues,” brought up some interesting points, but I found myself taking issue with some of his issues. Maybe it is just because I have the end-of-school crankies, but the more I read, the less impressed I was with his piece.

First, he buried the lead. While the subhead tells us where he is going with the article (“taking advantage of the synergies” between academia and pop culture), he doesn’t get around to it for several paragraphs.

Once he does, I find myself rejecting his premise. For example, he writes about creeping intellectualism (insert literal interpretation vis-à-vis a bad horror film here) and an audience that is “fascinated by the culture of teaching and learning.” I disagree. If that were the case, we would have more and better parental involvement in our schools and with our students. Instead, most parents have abdicated their responsibility in the education of their children and simply turned them over to the schools and the teachers. Their “fascination” is more like a passing interest, partly out of complacency and partly due to the way our public school system is designed to run efficiently (?) without much outside input or assistance.

While popular media does include shows, movies, songs, etc., about education, that is nothing new. People have always written about what they know, and what they are confident their audience can relate to. Since the vast majority of Americans have been to school, these school-related programs are easy fodder for the entertainment machine. And they always have been. From dramatic movies of a generation ago like Up the Down Staircase and The Paper Chase to this decade’s Boston Public and Freedom Writers, people are drawn to shows and movies about school because they are familiar.

Do these pop culture versions of education reflect reality? Not so much. But that is okay. After all, we’re talking about entertainment here, not about creating documentaries that reflect the realities of today’s public schools. Anyway, most people probably think they already know what is what when it comes to education. Their personal experience has made them instant experts in much the same way that after watching one or two nights of Olympic gymnastics, the home viewer considers their own assessment of a performance to be as valid as that of a judge who has dedicated their entire life to the sport.

Graff also mentions Ellen Willis and her observations of how “ideas that matter” move up and down the media food chain. Graff’s interpretation, though, is that these ideas originate within academia, are repurposed for more thoughtful or sophisticated media consumers, but eventually end up at the bottom of the heap (USA TODAY and Roseanne). I think it is more of a two-way street than he is willing to acknowledge. Academics are prone to ask questions leading to scholarly research and discussion of ideas that matter, but these are sometimes prompted by observations of the culture that they see in the mass media.

I strongly disagree with Graff’s statement that “What ‘feeds the heads’…of Times writers and PBS commentators (and perhaps even the audiences of Roseanne and ER) doesn’t necessarily enter the heads of college undergraduates or of high-school teachers and students.” This is precisely the type of elitist thinking that separates people instead of bringing folks together. Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but smart people are inquisitive people. Nobody started life as an op-ed writer for the Times, but I can almost guarantee that they were just as intellectually curious as a kid as their contemporaries who never left Columbia or the University of Chicago. Dorothy Parker said, “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

Teaching pop culture and its touch points as part of a curriculum (be it English Lit, History, or any other) is important because it grabs students where they live and gives them an opportunity to expand their understanding beyond the limitations of what they and their friends like. They can move from what they know (or think they know) to something less familiar, but interesting, and from there curiosity takes over.

Ultimately, by examining popular music and other forms of youth culture, they go on a journey they may not take otherwise, and as Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Once we can get our students to this point, they are more likely to want to join this “club we belong to” and will bring a broader and more valuable way of employing “Arguespeak” than what we see today.