Pop Culture Classroom

Pop Culture in Academic Classrooms In discussions of the academic classroom, one controversial issue has been the incorporation of popular culture in a scholarly style. On the one hand, Gerald Graff, an English professor who has been teaching for several years at the University of Illinois in Chicago, argues that “street smarts,” which can relate to popular culture, have educational value and can help young students show and develop their intellectualism. On the other hand, Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University since 1989, believes pop culture, especially modern technology, has no benefit to education and even stupefies young students. Others, such as Andrea Peacocke who is a student herself, even maintain the idea that …show more content…
Movies are able to express drama or interesting situations, while educating the viewers with facts. A large percentage of today’s population, mainly the younger people, have a fascination for movies and are very interested in them. This allows students to think of watching movies as a fun activity during class and a break from lecture. However, they are actually learning information said by their instructor in a different format. They have a visual form of the information and may be able to comprehend the events or the circumstances they are currently learning because it is expressed in a different format than lecture or notes. Songs, video games, music videos, and even sports also allow students to comprehend a certain topic better because these things, these artifacts of pop culture, are able to relate or connect with this generation of students. Students are able to express their interest in these artifacts and therefore are more inclined to actually learn from …show more content…
Forrest Gump is about a man, Forrest Gump, who is not very intelligent, and his one and only love, Jenny. Through life, all he thinks about Jenny. However, his life took him through various situations, and somehow, mostly by accident, he was present during several of the major historical events in the United States. He meets the famous Elvis Presley, fought in the Vietnam War, meets the President of the United States on several occasions, is present during anti-war rallies, and even lives through the start of the grand Apple company. Personally, history has always been a troublesome subject for me because it is based on memory. I, like many other people, seem to retain ideas or information that seem interesting or useful to us. I did not find history interesting, therefore I never could remember events that occurred. However, when my class was discussing the mid-to-late 1900s, my teacher decided it would be helpful for us to watch this specific movie to hopefully allow us to better understand the situation. Since Forrest Gump’s setting is around a large period of time, it really allowed me to see what the mid-to-late 1900’s was about. With Elvis Presley in the movie, an icon of the mid-1900s, we are able to see the style of music and fashion that was popular back then, which can be very helpful in the arts. The Vietnam War was a huge component in this time period,