Less Pop, More Culture

“Popular culture surrounds us and can inform our mind and hearts from our starting moment in this life to the final one,” said Great Hearts Roosevelt headmaster, Tony Cruz. “It is simply an expression of the contemporary.  By nature, it is transient.  It ebbs and flows with each generation.”

However, at Great Hearts, we find that pop culture is not always True, nor inherently Good, and while it may be attractive for a temporal moment in time, it is rarely transcendentally Beautiful.  While it can be fun to enjoy recreationally, it is a “less than” pastime when stacked up against classic works that have transcended time and culture.  Rather than creating a culture of wonder, it has bred an unsatiable appetite to consume.

At Great Hearts, we ask our students and faculty to keep pop culture out of the classroom so students can focus on their academics.  We do this to allow students a learning environment in which all can pursue knowledge and virtue on common ground.  At school, our students should be immersed in the most noble, worthy, and permanent things.

“As we endeavor to cultivate great hearts, my hope is that our students and our schools can influence the transient with the transcendental as much as possible.  My hope is that this is true as they go through our schools and more so as they leave our schools and begin shaping Western society.  May the transcendental inform the transient as much as possible!” said Cruz.

Great Hearts is intentional about creating a common and civil community among its students and in preserving an educational environment free from distractions. This includes manners of speech, habits of respect during discussions with others, attention to the content of the curriculum to the exclusion of references either to current pop-culture personalities, music, movies, and even politics and current events. To further this educational environment, Great Hearts also requires students to use backpacks, lunch bags, and other accessories that are free from such images or references.

Great Hearts desires to free the educational environment from consumerism and external marketing influences through this policy of “no pop culture” in school. Its purpose includes:

• To give young people an educational space free from popular examples that may be merely superficial and time-bound, while we try to introduce them to more permanent and universal aspects of human nature and human community
• To give them educational space from the peer pressure to be media and celebrity “literate”
• To elevate their imaginations and their thoughts above the low, the base, and the mediocre
• To create points of reference and a common ground for conversation that transcends the student’s age, experience, and the biases of his peer group
• To give them the broadest range of images and ideas from which they will eventually address the concerns of their own time and place

This intentional philosophy creates and preserves the desired educational environment and improves the educational process for the benefit of all students, and acts as a shield against what is shallow and temporary in popular culture on behalf of what is serious and permanent. Students will learn to think for themselves and develop deep critical thinking skills and analytical ability. It is in that ability that we hope to see meaningful distinctions in our students and not in clothing or accessories. It is also the intention of this policy to improve student learning, to reduce disciplinary referrals, to improve morale, and to instill self-worth and self-confidence in students as lasting traits.

Do you have a story or know of a story that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts?  Please contact jmoore@greatheartsamerica.org.