Mini-Pop culture Analysis

When you think of pop culture, what comes to mind? Is it celebrities, music, and movies? Well that is exactly what pop culture is along with more. Pop culture can be old and famous toys or familiar TV shows, anything that is or was popular in our society.

            For my pop culture analysis, I chose to write about the popular children’s TV show “Sesame Street”. Sesame Street premiered for the first time on television in 1969. It became popular very quickly. The television show appealed mostly to children; it taught educational subjects like reading, your ABC’s, and numbers, as more of a fun way to learn. It became popular so fast because the TV show had such high ratings that they made tapes and DVDs, they advertised on TV, made clothes with the characters on it, and plush toys of characters for the kids to play with while watching the show etc. It also became a growing trend because the families of children thought the show was really great for their kids so families everywhere continued to the growth of the TV show. Sesame Street wasn’t just another child’s television show, it was educational and the kids seemed to really connect with the show because it’s interactive with your child.

            Sesame Street as a television show developed no cultural issues that some would. It included the main characters as “furry monsters”, like Elmo that kids enjoyed. And children of every race and culture starred on the show as characters as well. People of all race and culture thought the TV show was great and that it had and great impact on their children. Based on what I know about high and low culture, I believe Sesame Street falls under low culture. Even though it had great success but I think its low culture because we the people of low culture influence it on our children for them, and I think people of higher culture are so worried about other things and that their children would be wrapped up in what their parents are doing. I’m not completely saying people of high culture don’t influence it on their children, it’s just the TV show is more popular in the low culture stature.

            Since the show premiered it has had an unbelievable impact on our society. Sesame Street gave children the benefit to make learning fun for them. As well as society has had a benefit from it because some teachers use it in lesson plans to bring the show into the classroom, and it just prepares the child for school, and that makes schools better because all the children are doing better at learning from the benefits. Sesame Street influenced our culture as a whole because families can give their child a head start at learning. Furthermore, Sesame Street has had a positive impact on children and society. I believe the TV show will continue to grow and continue to teach children educational values. Sesame Street is a great part of our pop culture, which influenced millions of children.

My Time Line

• 1993- I was born.
• Loved to watch and interact with Barney shows on TV.
• 1999- Started Elementary School, Liked to color and draw pictures.
• 2004- Started Middle School, Liked reading and playing music I played the Violin. Also really liked reading the book "The Diary of Ann Frank".
• Before my dad passed away in 2001, he loved to write poetry. My mom showed me it after he passed and it really connected me too him and his writing. And it made me think more about what his poems really meant.
• 2007- Started High School, Loved to learn about Biology and Anatomy.
• 2009- Started taking Spanish classes to learn the language, but also since I was a child I grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood so I have been around the Spanish language my whole life and I have always tried to learn and understand what my friends and neighbors were saying.
• 2011(Present) - I am still perusing my love to learn about biology and anatomy and also to learn the Spanish language. And also learning new things everyday about improving my writing and reading skills.

Questions on Mondays Reading

1. Literacy was important to Sherman Alexi because he lived in an Indian reservation where everyone that lived there was illiterate. Since no one else knew how to read or write Alexi was determined to learn. He wanted to go to school and get off the Indian reservation for a better life. He also wanted to prove to everyone that he could learn and that he didn't have to grow up like they did that he could be different. I think that is was just as essential for him to learn how to be literate because I wanted to learn and go to college to be successful just as he wanted too.

2. I think my development in being literate was connected to my culture because my family was always thought to be smart and well behaved. In school I was expected to be smart and to get good grades just by where I came from and who my family was.

3. The narrative I enjoyed most was "Two Questions", by Lynda Barry. I enjoyed this one most because her creativity and weirdness made the story interesting to read. The pictures she drew connected with the story with detail, like when she said she love to draw as a child she portrayed that in her pictures. And she made her point about wanting to go back to where she was a child and she just wrote without pressure and she showed it her story.

4. The circular narrative is to make one point in the beginning of the story to draw your readers in and then repeat the point at the end of the story to pull it all together. And as I said in question 3, I think Lynda Barry’s story was a circular narrative because she starts the story off about the two questions she was always pressured to answer and then ended her story saying she now feels no pressure from those two questions anymore.

Career goal/Writing and communication

My career goal is to be a registered nurse and to work in a hospital. I think i will have to use my writing skills to write down clear notes of patients problems and issues and report daily on all my patients to tell how they are doing for the doctors. Also i will need great communication skills to talk to patients, doctors, and concerned families of the patients. My writing and communication will need to improve to higher standards of working as a nurse and working in a hospital.