As Teenagers, Who Were We?

To start us off for the day, let's spend some time looking back into our own pasts. Grounding ourselves autobiographically is one of the foremost tasks of curriculum-making. Recalling our own histories and memories--of music, television, film, technology, celebrity, consumption--are fruitful reminders of the influence and power of popular culture and a generative spot to begin our work here together.

1. Divide your big post-it note into six sections.
2. Spend some time brainstorming all of the nooks and crannies from your youth. Think about your childhood room: What posters were on your walls? What music videos did you watch? What kinds of foods were in your freezer?
3. We'll share these detailed maps of our youth culture histories.
4. Finally, we'll consider these questions together as group:

• How did these fixtures of popular culture and/or your surroundings shape the person you were or would become?
• Did you sense that the adults in your life knew about this youth culture?
• Did these forms of youth culture serve as a kind of pedagogy? In other words: What did you learn from them?