American Culture

Yesterday, Anthony Fitzpatrick in his Solve for Y presentation reminded us of how strong our cultural ties can be.  He brought up many common expressions and reminded us of their roots and connotations.  I found his reminder that many expressions such as "The Midas Touch" actually come from negative connotations, though we often use them positively.  Anthony also brought up that we often have a tendency to romanticize the past, or to look back about 20 years and describe how amazing things were then.  As examples, he cited the theme songs to All in the Family and Happy Days which describe either glory days gone by or are written about a period already long in the past.  Finally, he presented us with examples of how current culture is often based on historic culture.  One example of this is the song "Love Story" by Taylor Swift which references Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Hawthorne's Scarlett Letter (albeit incorrectly). 
I think that students would have some very powerful connections to the current culture representations that Anothony presented.  Anthony's presentation reminded me that many of my students have this content knowledge that I can tap into when presenting historical lessons.  I plan to keep this in mind as I teach different social studies lessons.