Brief Thoughts On Pop Culture and the Classics

 The following is from the Tutor Handbook (Section 3.1) at Sayers Classical Academy, where I work:

It is the desire of SCA that students learn to love the Lord with all of their minds (Matthew 22:37).  One way that the tutors can contribute to this high calling is by seeking to elevate both the casual and formal discussions they have with their students. 

 

A practical application of this desire is the SCA policy to use great discretion in matters of Pop Culture.  Tutors are asked to redirect conversations away from Pop Culture during both classroom and informal discussions.   

 

Differing Convictions Re: Pop Culture

Not allowing on-campus conversations to dwell on Pop Culture matters is especially important in an environment such as a Christian school/academy, given differing convictions from parents and students regarding what Pop Culture is appropriate (and/or at what age encountering certain Pop Culture may be appropriate). It is not right to make fellow students feel left out or lesser than because they or their parents have made different decisions about what to watch or listen to. We instruct our students that when matters of Pop Culture do come up among their fellow students in passing, and when someone says “I can’t listen to that” or “my family does not watch that,” it is CRUCIAL to speak affirmatively to their classmates; students must NOT be a source of temptation for a classmate to violate his or her conscience or to disobey his or her parents. Students are instructed to speak affirmatively to their fellow classmates, and try to see the other side of the issue.

 

On the Superiority of the Classics vs. Pop Culture

In addition to matters of subjective conviction, there are objective reasons to focus our thoughts on the Classics, at least while on the campus of the school/academy. The purpose for our time on campus is to train our minds according to truth, especially as expressed through the Western tradition. Engaging in Pop Culture can certainly be entertaining. Certain aspects of Pop Culture have definite recreational value, when enjoyed in moderation. However, due (in part) to its broad appeal—wanting to resonate with people of radically different worldviews, and not wanting to assume that viewers/listeners have specific cultural knowledge (outside of whatever genre or cinematic universe to which a certain movie/song belongs)—Pop Culture is necessarily more shallow than the Classics. The creators of Pop Culture often desire to keep viewers/listeners attention above all else, so cinematic or musical shorthand comes into play, with richly developed plot or characters (in popular books or movies) or variations in harmonies, rhythm, and tempo (in music) short-changed. The river of Pop Culture runs rapidly, but not deeply, and the person that stays on it too long is always in danger of running aground. And, practically speaking, the person well-trained in the Classics can produce, more proficiently, works of Pop Culture, while the person who crowds his or her mind with works of Pop Culture, to the detriment of deeply considering and conversing about the Classics, will certainly never produce anything approaching Paradise Lost or The Lord of the Rings.