Popular Culture Should Be a Popular Course

Peter Oestreich

Dr. Lane

Writing II

10 October 2006

Popular Culture Should Be A Popular Course

Dear Chair of the Education Department,

Popular culture should be a course that is offered on Clarion campus for everyone. If popular culture is taught correctly, a course on popular culture can provide a very educational outlook on wide variety of important topics such as race and ethnicity or politics(Rise and Fall). Popular culture is very interesting, in that it is what is popular to people, and should be a class that is taught to students who elect to take the course. It does not have to be a required course or a major however, it should be an option as a three credit course for students who enjoy it. Popular culture is what is popular to people, such as movies, sports, music, and books. However, there is a lot to learn from popular things.

Something that is popular culture can also be very educational. Halifu Osumare a professor at Hawaii University states: "it(popular culture) contains most of the issues and the theoretical perspectives being taught in the academy today. They understand the models I'm using, that's why it is accepted.(This is College)'' This is exactly why popular culture should be taught in universities across the country. Students can better relate to popular culture which makes it easier to learn.

Popular culture can make learning things much easier because it helps students keep their attention on the subject at hand. The Simpsons is a very popular show and is studied in popular culture courses. The reason for studying the Simpsons is that there are hidden themes to their shows. The Simpsons are about more than just a disoriented family who make bad decisions. When students look at the Simpsons for educational purposes they can begin to understand the writers hidden meanings. Although the problems on the Simpsons are viewed as funny, they can also be real life situations(This is College).

At the University of Cal Berkeley Stanislav Basovich, a history major teaches a popular culture course called Democratic Education. He states that: "It is not as academic as a study of the Civil War but it is definitely academic, I want the class thinking creatively.(This is College)" Basovich is on target because to help stop students from just simply going through the motions and doing what is needed to be done to graduate, he is trying to stretch their imagination and get them to start thinking more creatively.

Bowling Green University which is widely known for its popular culture courses may say it best as to why we should have popular culture courses on our campus: "a student majoring in popular culture studies the forms of creative expression we use in everyday life. Courses focus on the impact various aspects of popular culture have on our culture and how they reflect the values of our society.(Bowling Green)" Teaching students popular culture, when taught correctly, can lead to learning causes and effects from popular culture on our society such as the stock market. Pop culture effects bigger things in society such as marketing and business. Learning what popular culture does to our society is something