ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the complaints that popular culture interferes with education and has created an intellectually lazy population. It explains that changes in visual media and the increased ability to communicate electronically have altered how people interact and exchange information. Television, texting, and a culture awash in seemingly frivolous gossip may appear to be the causes of educational failure, but the reality is far less entertaining. The vast divides of educational attainment and intellectual achievement can be explained not by popular culture, but by the continuing reality of inequality in American society. One of the most important factors predicting educational success is having parents who actively support and are involved in their child's education. Focusing on popular culture places the entire burden of educational disparities onto individuals or parents, while completely disregarding the stubborn nature of racial and economic inequality, which is often reflected and reproduced in the educational system.
