When reading this book I was thinking about how great the discussion would turn out for this. We could relate it to celebrities today and really go deep into the idea of the "celebrity" as Halkett talks about. I don't know if I just had high hopes or everyone else is more in tune with celebrities today that I am, but I was a little disappointed at how surface level some of the answers remained throughout the course of the conversation. I thought that we did a good job of coming up with questions and linking ideas relevant to the book, but for some reason everyone wanted to talk about actual shows or celebrities when they talked. I think some of it had to do with the fact that people were kind of celebrity gossiping in the text area of elluminate... but maybe this just goes to further exemplify the authors claims of the celebrity industry greatly affecting our lives whether we want it to or not.
Besides the discussion, I honestly think that this is super relevant to every aspect of our society. It helps to relate almost all the other books we have talked about... the economy, government, even technology. It helped me to understand each one of the other books' importance as well as how the celebrity culture we live in truly affects our society (and, by nature, our classrooms). From MTV to Huckabee to Twitter and tabloids, the media/social media perpetuates the idea of being successful equates with being famous. With the UK classroom study it is obvious that this fuels our students to mimic what they see and 70% of teachers state that celebrity culture influences their students' aspirations for the future. If the next generation aspires to be like the cast of Jersey Shore or even Paris Hilton, then I think we are missing the mark as educators.
This goes into the ramifications for ourselves and our students question in the Prezi. Like Dan was saying, he had to sit his son down and explain to him that slapping someone is not an appropriate reaction as it was displayed in one of his tv shows. What happens to the students that don't have a father like Dan (whooop-whoop Dan!) or another role model to exemplify positive behavior? As teachers we need to constantly be influencing our students to make responsible and good decisions.... the question remains, however, as to how can we do this when they are so infatuated with the media telling them otherwise? I think that while it is good to use examples of celebrity in our classroom, it is also important to show the fact that it is an industry and that everyone is susceptible to buying into it. How one does this along with pacing guides and standardized tests to teach to...? Maybe that question is exemplary of our current values when it comes to education.
I also thought that discussion was going to lean more in the direction of discussing the idea of celebrity rather than celebrities alone. But you make an excellent point that Currid-Halkett also makes, which is that as a society we are Starstruck and obsessed with the culture and business of celebrity. In the classroom I agree that teachers could use celebrity as a topic, but should steer it in a constructive and realistic way that portrays celebrities less like the ultimate goal and more like a learning tool. Students can learn from celebrities, from both their successes and their failures, especially the latter as long as we as educators point them out and make them relevant in our classrooms. And yes indeed we need more parents like Dan, because try as we might, as teachers we will not have overall influence on students if we have any at all. Some students will completely shut us out and for that reason we need parents and other respectful role models to step up and give an alternative to the celebrity.
ReplyDeleteSara, your Elluminate questions and ideas were great! Also, I think you totally nailed the main issues in your post here. Perhaps our discussion was a learning experience for exactly what might happen when we discuss celebrity with our own students! More than almost any other topic, students are going to want to share their individual experiences and preferences - which provides great fodder for discussion! Certainly, drawing on their "prior knowledge" is a terrific entree to this kind of conversation, but I can also tell that you know exactly where to steer it from there (perhaps based on the Elluminate experience).
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea:
Historian Daniel Boorstin wrote: "A sign of celebrity is often that their name is worth more than their services." Discuss. :)
That quote is SO true, Dr. W! Take the multiple references to Paris Hilton in the book. I really like what you said though, that the discussion was exemplarily of what would happen in a real classroom... I could totally see that happening in my internship. Thanks for the encouragement ;)
ReplyDelete