Dear Parent and/or Guardian,

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about a key component to your student's learning experience. In this class, U.S. History, we often use popular culture as a baseline for understanding historical issues in society, the economy, politics, and diplomacy. While we certainly use traditional methods of content delivery, we intend to include samples from both historical and contemporary movies, television, music, the web, and the like. Part of our approach is to make as many connections as possible to your child's life outside the classroom.

We'll seek to explore this relationship in many different ways. Your child may be asked to view historical examples of popular culture. Examples may include patriotic music throughout or country's history compared to today. Popular culture reflected in music may be a great opportunity to discuss the controversies each period of study contains. Another way in which we integrate popular culture into our class is making judgment on what our society values. Popular culture may act as a backdrop to discuss the accuracy and fairness of issues such as race, class, and gender.

You may do your part at home to reinforce continual learning. Take every possible opportunity to ask questions about what judgments your child is exposed to in the various things they see and hear as part of their daily experience. Between fun and a healthy appreciation for critical analysis is a chance for growth.

Yours in education,
Andrew Eschle