Yearbook Dreaming

I have decided after listening, once again, to students wax poetic about the potential of doing a Grateful Dead/ tie dye/ trippy-colored yearbook, that most young people are developmentally delayed in the area of taste. Struggling with the boundaries between having a student publication that is the true voice of the students and my utter distaste for any color scheme involving full-color hot pink and lime pages, I focus on remaining open and constructive about their theme ideas. Some were ok, and some were god-awful. The discussion will continue tomorrow.

But for a moment, I lost focus and came up with my own not-exactly-serious idea for a yearbook theme: The Divine Comedy. There's the hell of freshman year, the purgatory of sophomore and junior years and the paradise of senior year and graduating. You could do a black-gray-white color scheme that would have very little need of hot pink, rhinestones or stupid dancing bears.

But since my school is pre-K through twelfth, I don't think it would work too well.

Plus, it's all a PR game anyway. Hell analogies don't work too well for recruitment.

Conclusion: I will cross my fingers and magically figure out how to teach tasteful design.

Comments

[Joel]

I taught last year in a k-12 school. Now I'm just teaching 6th grade in a middle school. I miss how close everyone was in the community at the smaller school. (The Divine Comedy would be an excellent choice of theme though. Go for it!)

[hipteacher]

I have occasional issues with the whole private school thing, but I LOVE the K-12 school too. Everyday my entire class waves like crazy at my kid as he walks to the cafeteria for lunch with his kindergarten class. It's awesome.

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[Alison]

I stumbled across your blog a few weeks ago, and I love it. I teach 11th grade English at a private school in the mid-Atlantic and run into many of the issues that you discuss in your entries.

My AP class is starting the Inferno tomorrow. We are also creating our own private Infernos (a world where everyone wears whale-print pants, perhaps?).

Best of luck.

[Mrs. T]

I LOVE the Divine Comedy analogy. It is perfect. (Maybe you could suggest it to a trusted group of renegade seniors, and it could be an after-school project, specific to their class... their own personal hellish freshman-year experiences, stuff of the sort, published through LuLu.com? The idea seems too good to waste simply due to administration's small-minded views on Hell analogies :P )

Regarding the Grateful Dead, I think the problem in this particular case is less a lack of taste and more a desire to test hte boundaries. Kids think "old" bands like that are cool because those guys did drugs, so if I like their music, I'm, like, a rebel too, because that means that I think it's cool to, like, do drugs and stuff. Same appeal Bob Marley and Pink Floyd have on the high schoolers, but GD have the cute little teddy bears, which gets you the all-important female vote.

:)

[Analia]

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[Tom Darling]

Why not take a pile of yearbooks from different eras and different times and deconstruct them?

One of the problems with yearbooks is what seems "cool" and original at age 17 is horrible at... well, 18 and older. Yet, some things are universal and age well. Perhaps if members speak with their parents, and ask what they WISH the yearbook had been.

It might inspire them to go a bit deeper.

I would most certainly NOT suggest any themes or even layouts. Students need to discover their voice, and it can only be done by asking questions (does a pot leave really symbolize the class of 2009?) and some clear limits (no swearing, for example). As clever as you might be, they are going to do the work and live with the results. Your suggestions carry a context and history they do not have, and will adopt your suggestions because they want to please you.

[Jarret]

I would say most people are delayed in the area of taste . . . permanently.

[Victoria A Flint]

Your best bet is to use stick people. They never go out of style.
V-

[Jermaine]

What a great blog.

Please visit also TimeRime.com
The website is very educational, so our site is very popular among teachers and students.

[Sophie]

Aren't the dancing bears old news yet? They were intriguing/counterculture/whatever when I was in high school... like a long time ago. Where's the new rebellion material?

Anyway, the reason I came across your blog is because I'm hunting high school teachers right now. I co-edit a new literary magazine called The Normal School and we're giving copies to teachers who would like to make use of them in the classroom. We aren't boring or inaccessible and our inaugural issue features some serious names. We also challenged McSweeney's Quarterly Concern to a bloody fistfight. If you or fellow teachers who are readers of your blog are interested in receiving copies, let me know. Thanks.

[Lee Shapiro]

I imagine many already know about this site, but if you're stuck for a present for your teacher (or want a gift for another student teacher) there's absolutely nothing like www.welldressedreader.com. It's a fund site to look at even if you don't buy, and if you do buy, they support CF research. I love it! Lee

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[A GIRL]

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I am not a teacher but I want to know "IF ONE DAY a teacher go to school and see there is no student behind a table BECUZ he or she is died in a bombared with no reason on their home what does a tescher feel? does it sound good ? WHAT DO YOU FEEL?
WHY YOU DO NOT PAY ATTENTION WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE STUDENT IN GAZA?
ARE U SATIZFIED THAT IT HAPPEN TO YOUR STOUDENT?

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