Looking at Disney

What steps toward media literacy and media education can you think of that we should teach children to help them critically evaluate Disney and other popular culture products for themselves?

I don’t think art educators are the only educators responsible for this huge undertaking. I know that in my district the social studies departments and the language arts departments do a good job of incorporating current events, popular culture and teaching students to look at the world with a critical gaze. I co-taught an LA/art class with a teacher who had previously taught an entire term on deconstructing Disney in Illinois.

I can imagine that in elementary school an undertaking like deconstructing Disney would be tricky. I know one 4th grade teacher who is a Disney-aholic and her entire room is decorated with toys, posters etc. I wonder if any parents have walked in there aghast, or if any parents ended up spending more money on Disney merchandise that year. I like the option of offering different alternatives, like Miyazaki films, PBS shows etc., but I also believe that children are totally capable of getting something out of a conversation about stereotypes, gender roles and body image.

At a high school level I think that teaching how to critically evaluate works of art and the visual media around them is a vital skill and adds to their feeling of independence, creativity and sometimes even appeal to them by framing it through a rebellious/subversive/critical context. If we leave it up to the students, depending on the culture they have at home, and the choices they are presented by popular culture, I believe many of my students anyway would not get there on their own.

It wasn’t really until college that I really developed the skill to look at information critically. In college I remember deconstructing Shakespeare, which was almost torture, but in the end made me appreciate the art of a close read. I remember being heavily influenced by writing research papers about artists in my high school art class, Frida Kahlo and Eva Hesse to be exact. A place where critical reading didn’t occur very much unfortunately was in my high school social studies classes. I think that is something that’s happening more now- exploring the biases of history book publishes and curriculum creators. I think teaching students to think twice before they believe what they see, or read, even if it is in an academic setting is critical to creating independent, creative, thoughtful and responsible citizens of the world.

What steps toward media literacy and media education can you think of that we should teach children to help them critically evaluate Disney and other popular culture products for themselves?

I don’t think art educators are the only educators responsible for this huge undertaking. I know that in my district the social studies departments and the language arts departments do a good job of incorporating current events, popular culture and teaching students to look at the world with a critical gaze. I co-taught an LA/art class with a teacher who had previously taught an entire term on deconstructing Disney in Illinois.

I can imagine that in elementary school an undertaking like deconstructing Disney would be tricky. I know one 4th grade teacher who is a Disney-aholic and her entire room is decorated with toys, posters etc. I wonder if any parents have walked in there aghast, or if any parents ended up spending more money on Disney merchandise that year. I like the option of offering different alternatives, like Miyazaki films, PBS shows etc., but I also believe that children are totally capable of getting something out of a conversation about stereotypes, gender roles and body image.

At a high school level I think that teaching how to critically evaluate works of art and the visual media around them is a vital skill and adds to their feeling of independence, creativity and sometimes even appeal to them by framing it through a rebellious/subversive/critical context. If we leave it up to the students, depending on the culture they have at home, and the choices they are presented by popular culture, I believe many of my students anyway would not get there on their own.

It wasn’t really until college that I really developed the skill to look at information critically. In college I remember deconstructing Shakespeare, which was almost torture, but in the end made me appreciate the art of a close read. I remember being heavily influenced by writing research papers about artists in my high school art class, Frida Kahlo and Eva Hesse to be exact. A place where critical reading didn’t occur very much unfortunately was in my high school social studies classes. I think that is something that’s happening more now- exploring the biases of history book publishes and curriculum creators. I think teaching students to think twice before they believe what they see, or read, even if it is in an academic setting is critical to creating independent, creative, thoughtful and responsible citizens of the world.