Friday, May 4, 2007
Just when you thought celebrity obsessions didn’t have any aspect of society left unpenetrated, one more has been chalked up. Now the shallow world of celebrity obsession is permeating school children’s education.
nutgraf
The hazards of underage drinking are important for teenagers to grasp. No qualms there. However, using a celebutant as a teaching tool may mute the message. What 16-year-old is going to focus on the cognitive impairment of alcohol when he can remove Paris Hilton’s liver and play catch with it?
Artist Daniel Edwards has created a statue titled “Paris Hilton Autopsy.” Paris and her famous dog, Tinkerbell, are sprawled out in somewhat erotic form and onlookers can remove her organs. The artist and agency say the piece was “designed to warn teenagers of the hazards of underage drinking.”
The hazards of underage drinking are important for teenagers to grasp. No qualms there. However, using a celebutant as a teaching tool may mute the message. What 16-year-old is going to focus on the cognitive impairment of alcohol when he can remove Paris Hilton’s liver and play catch with it?
The concept of making learning more enjoyable and entertaining isn’t a bad thing. Showing students simulations of what it looks like to drive drunk, listening to real stories of drinking gone wrong and learning about the health risks of drinking all “entertain” while teaching. And yes, teaching youths of the responsibilities and dangers of drinking can be improved upon — as the rise in teenage drinking proves.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services performed a study that found underage drinkers consume nearly 3.6 billion drinks a year. Clearly, underage drinking is a problem in the United States. Perhaps educational tools need to be altered to effectively reach today’s youth.
However, if educators have to reduce health education to Paris Hilton in order to get through to teenagers, what’s next? Analyzing misogynistic or violent rap lyrics in poetry classes?
Updating teaching methods to get through from time-to-time are necessary; adopting a tabloid culture to teach is just trashy. Paris Hilton naked for art’s sake is perfectly fine. Paris Hilton’s naked body “teaching” teenagers will only result in confused parents and increased sales of US Weekly Magazine.
— Tasha Riggins for the editorial board
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Comments
Editorial: Health education reduced to Paris Hilton
You're missing the point here. If kids, particularly girls, are going to emulate Paris they should know the repercussions. You can't go out night after night without doing some damage to your body, so playing with her diseased liver might do a little toward making her silly life seem less glamorous. By the way, they've been analyzing rap lyrics in the classroom for years.
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