catapult magazine

The school at which I teach has asked me to develop a “Christian Perspectives on Pop Culture class” for next year, which is great except that I have absolutely no idea where to begin putting it all together in some semblance of a curriculum. The main focus is the big three – movies, music, and television, but also drama, pop lit, video games, advertising, etc. I am desperately looking for suggestions about how to put this all together, main themes to explore, suggested titles, whatever you can think of. Particularly helpful would be some type of existing curriculum you’ve seen at a high school or youth group or college or pretty much anywhere else… Please help!!

hi kris:

you seem to have come to the right place. well, i think so anyway!

we’re literally in the middle of developing a curriculum called cultureVision that is almost exactly what you’re looking for. one of our board members, bill boerman-cornell, is a high school teacher and developed the foundation for the curriculum. he’s been using it for four years at his school to great success.

we’re hoping to have everything completed and ready to go in early summer. you can e-mail me directly at robvgr@cultureisnotoptional.com if you’d like more information.

Hi Kris,

We put together a curriculum at our school for something like what you are talking about four or five years ago. The trick is, you can really only come up with a stucture and then each year plug in new examples. For kids, when a movie, song, or whatever is even a year old, it is hopelessly outdating. The curriculum Laurencer is talking about, which i helped write, seems to work well on line, because we can pull out and lug in stuff as we need it. When the curriculum is ready, it should be jsut what the doctor ordered. In the meantime, do you have any specific questions?

—BBC