6th Grade - Fitting In

Fitting in during middle school is hard, whether you have the "cool" gene or not. All of the texts we looked at for the sixth grade unit were centered around trying to fit - being cool - through our appearances. The Macklemore video focused on how shoes make us not only look cool but have athletic ability, the Abercrombie and Fitch readjustment video focused on Abercrombie and Fitch - a brand centered around the cool kids to look cooler, the Merchants of Cool documentary clip tried to identify just what makes kids cool - for clothing companies to use for their new trends, and The Style Quiz is designed for people to identify with a unique style that says something about what kind of person they are. I kind of struggled with this unit because these texts are perpetuating a message that is exactly what I would not want to send to my students. Fitting in shouldn't be all about appearances and what we wear - but it is. Showing the younger generations how important our appearance is in American society only reinforces that idea. Teachers are hard-pressed to change kids minds about the socially engrained idea about the importance of looks; so we should do everything in our power to try and change that importance. The only reason appearance is so important in our society is because we have been socialized to think that way. So, when discussing these texts, I would be very careful to steer discussion not onto: how does one become cool? but more like: how does consumerism control and affect our success in school, in terms of "fitting in?" I think this is a more valuable message for the students to get out of these texts because trying to become cool without already understanding what makes someone cool is nearly impossible. In the documentary the interviewees even said that it is extremely difficult to find these innovative kids who define what "cool" even is. I wouldn't want to help my students try and fit in to a system that is so unforgiving (because so little people are deemed "cool"). Instead, I want the younger generations to focus on how products maybe affect and control aspects of our lives - and how we as a consumer can control that. In the documentary they discussed how the trend-setting companies are actually getting their ideas from trend-setting kids. So, if the students are the ones who set the trend, they have a lot of control in what makes people cool.

At my high school, a lot of styles were designated "cool." Yes, fitting in was a big factor for middle school and high school kids, but fitting in didn't revolve around clothing and products. This isn't because we were isolated from the greater society or anything, it's just because we decided as a community what we would accept as "cool" behavior. As a result, the kids who could afford the coolest Jordans weren't the only ones who were considered cool - the kid who bought his shoes second hand was just as accepted. The spectrum of cool clothing and products and behavior was extremely large, and I think that made for really successful students, both in academics and in social aspects. If kids understood their possibility for impact on consumerism and fitting in, I think the standard for cool might be a little different - or at least broader.