I read with interest and some dismay your article in the Dec. 1 issue of The Student, "Pop culture is popular in the classroom," a survey of how many of my colleagues are changing and expanding the way they teach their courses by using pop culture to enliven the material. Everyone interviewed seemed extremely enthusiastic about the possibilities of such an endeavor, especially in reaching, in the words of one professor, students "more visually oriented than oriented toward reading."

In my Major British Writers course this term we have been engaged with, among much else, Ben Jonson's poems, Milton's "Paradise Lost," the work of John Dryden, Pope's "The Dunciad," and various writings by Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson. How can I bring pop culture to bear on these remote works? No recent good films of "Paradise Lost" present themselves; no pop videos lead us into the heart of Swift or Johnson. Aside from an occasional reference to the film "Mean Girls," I have tried, more than once, to get a discussion going about the recent marital career of Britney Spears. But to no avail; my students seem reluctant to explore this with me. Just yesterday I mentioned, in connection with Sir Walter Scott, a recent film of his novel "Rob Roy." Alas, I told the class it starred Demi Moore, which turns out to be just plain wrong, not to say highly embarrassing.

At any rate I am on leave second semester and shall try to "catch up" on my pop culture, once I figure out just what it consists of, so as to bring these old musty books to vivid life for the 18-22-year-old crowd.

William H. Pritchard

Professor of English