To me this feels like an obvious answer, but as we read it is still a heavily debated topic.
I personally think pop culture should be used in school curriculum. Pop culture is relevant to our daily lives; so, students would be more likely to engage with the schoolwork and may even feel inspired to go out of their way to interact with pop culture whether through fandoms, forums, online boards/threads, or even create their own art based off of concepts they learn in school. isn’t that something teachers want from students? To use concepts from the classroom and apply to everyday life. And, yes, reading and learning about the ‘classics’ is important for students to understand historical references, but those artifacts were all popular culture at one point.
With massive amounts of information ready at our fingertips, why not learn about politics, art, and the culture of our time?
We are living in an unprecedented politically charged time in American history. Social media and pop culture are at the center of our daily lives. I mean even our President was/is part of our media culture with his use of Twitter and his reality TV show. Therefore, if teachers incorporate media and pop culture into the classroom students will be able to navigate social media (i.e. differentiate fake news from credible news, understand biases, and express their own opinions) as well as be able to understand the current debates.
I think if schools were to incorporate more relevant topics and discuss current political issues social change might actually come about.
