War Is Fun as Hell
Years of writing about public relations and propaganda has probably made me a bit jaded, but I was amazed nevertheless when I visited America’s Army, an online video game website […]
Media
Review: Radio Free Oaxaca
Film Radio Free Oaxaca Un poquito de tanta verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth) Director: Jill Freidberg Corrugated Films, 2007 (www.corrugate.org) DVD. 93 min. By Kelley Dawson Salas Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad […]
Who’s Crazy? Students Critique the The Gods Must Be Crazy
I wish I could say my colleagues Cresslyn Clay, Colin Pierce, and I had it all worked out from the beginning, and that we carefully crafted each nuance that prompted […]
Bad Signs
What are the real messages in the inspirational slogans covering classroom walls? Plus some better alternatives.
Rethinking MySpace
As an educator constantly searching for ways to use popular culture in my classroom
Bonfire of the Disney Princesses
Contrary to their spin machine, Disney’s princesses are far from role models
TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During ‘War On Terror
Six years into the ‘War on Terror
Kid Nation
CBS goes overboard with this painful exploitation of children.
Test Prep and the War
Preparing high schoolers for the Regents exam while studying the War in Iraq.
Elephants in the Room
When mainstream media report on urban schools, the real story is often what goes unsaid.
The Recruitment Minefield
Emiliano Santiago. Not many of our students know his name. But they should. Santiago joined the Oregon Army National Guard on June 28, 1996, shortly after his high school graduation […]
What About Play?
The ideas presented in this article are discussed at greater length in Dr. Olfman’s upcoming book Childhood Lost: How American Culture Is Failing Our Kids (Praeger Press) in which some […]
Beyond Pink and Blue
A unit on gender stereotypes inspires students to take action.
“The Laptops Are Coming! The Laptops Are Coming!”
Things to think about before the laptops arrive in your classroom.
Confession
I confess: My students play with blocks. Despite the current obsession with standards and standardized testing, some of us are still letting children play in our classrooms. Those of us […]
A Colonizing Agenda
Janice Jackson interviews Rethinking Schools editor Wayne Au about the failure of Bill Gates’ educational initiatives.
Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us
Students analyze cartoons from Popeye to Brave to see how media teaches children white- and male-supremacist ideas.
From Many Sides Now
A teacher uses poetry and the creation of found poems as a way to get her students to think beyond the simple “two sides to every story” narrative of the Vietnam War.
Rethinking Popular Culture and Media – 2nd Edition
Rethinking Popular Culture and Media begins from the premise that the “popular” is political. Whether it’s Disney and Barbie, or Snapchat and Vine, youth navigate, shape, and repurpose popular culture. […]