Filling the "Holes": Youth Culture in Social Studies

Social Studies Review, Fall 2004 by White, Cameron

INTRODUCTION

Television, movies, music and other youth provide tools for connections among our disconnected citizenry. Why not use these "alternative" texts, rather than belittle them? Just look at the success of Holes, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or the Lemony Snicket books. We owe it to our students to provide opportunities for critical analysis of youth culture. Film, television, music, books, and other forms of youth culture can provide rich opportunities for teaching and learning (Steinberg & Kincheloe, 1997).

What is the role of youth culture in schools and society? Does youth culture have a role in the education process of our young? We need to address these questions because youth culture plays a very prominent role in our lives and is very important to our society, our citizens, and especially our children. Integrating youth culture as a tool in the social studies provides connections for our kids as we attempt to facilitate knowledge skills, and dispositions. It is precisely in the diverse spaces and spheres of youth culture that most of the education that matters today is taking place on a global scale (Giroux, 1994).

A strong argument can be made that youth culture has become the most influential education institution for our children, and many seem quite frustrated by this. Our society has increasingly made youth culture a cornerstone of cultural identity and we simply cannot ignore this (Buckingham, 1998). Rather than continue the traditional strategies in social studies methods, I try to model teaching and learning that stresses the necessity to make social studies come alive for our students. Therefore, my social studies methods class integrates tools such as youth culture and "doing social studies" to help make relevant connections for students. Teachers are encouraged to learn from their students what their passions are regarding youth culture. They are then asked to integrate their students' culture as tools to enhance social studies knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

TUNING IN

Youth culture reflected in movies, books, television, music, youth, toys, technology, and fads can be used in a number of ways in education. The idea of empowering youth with teaching and learning that includes meaningful, challenging, integrative, value-based and controversial, and active approaches should be the goal (NCSS, 1994). Youth culture offers a natural integration; just imagine the power of movies, books, television, music, youth, toys, technology, and fads in promoting social studies.

But what better way to enhance the idea of social studies than to integrate youth culture? As stated previously, youth culture is perhaps one of the few remaining avenues for possible common dialog and understanding. If nothing else, it often provides a context for connections to the world and sense making in the world. Engaging in youth culture causes our students' eyes to light up; it encourages a passion often missing in our classrooms. This dialog and common understanding with youth culture can be used to enhance social studies (White, 2003). Instead of focusing on censorship and dismissing youth culture, there seems little today that students get excited over and encourages social discourse more so than youth. Allowing youth to bring in their youth as they investigate issues, make connections, construct knowledge, and engage in sense-making may very well be a threat to the entrenched (Daspit & Weaver, 2000). Nevertheless, youth culture is a powerful source for social change and much can be said concerning the possibilities of youth culture in promoting social studies.

HOLES

Holes, by Louis Sachar is about Stanley Yelnats, a boy who has quite a bit of bad luck. After being falsely accused of stealing sneakers he is sent to a boy's juvenile detention center called Camp Green Lake. Camp Green Lake is no camp, and there is no lake, and nothing green has ever grown there. The work each day is the same routine: dig a hole, five feet by five feet, the length and depth of your shovel and do not stop until you're finished. The book twists and turns among a variety of characters and incidents that focus on life skills and learning.

Holes, offers a great opportunity to engage students in meaningful social studies through youth culture. It allows the context and connections to and for our students often missing in more traditional approaches to social studies. Stanley Yelnats is a kid many of our kids (including ourselves) can identify with, what with all the youth issues presented in the text and movie. From ideas regarding character, to friendship and history, social studies issues are ripe for inquiry throughout Holes.

The recent movie of the same title and accompanying music soundtrack provide additional rich resources to promote social studies teaching and learning. In addition to the book, film and soundtrack, other resources that support the suggested approaches mentioned above include the book Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake and web sites including: