It may be classic rock to some parents - and their preferred choice of music - but it's history to today's teens and a Pinetree Social Studies teacher hopes to make it come alive with a new course offering this fall.
Jim Thompson has written a curriculum for a History of Rock and Roll course and the fact that two classes have already signed up is music to his ears.
"This gives them another avenue to explore music," said Thompson, who explained the course was developed for students who enjoy music but don't play an instrument.
He hopes to teach them the roots and social conditions that gave rise to rock music and he spent months developing the course from various sources, including documentary materials and even YouTube.
"There's a lot of students that like music but never got into the music department," said Thompson, who thinks the students will benefit from learning about rock music's early beginnings from jazz and gospel, to its social context in the African-American civil rights and anti-war movements.
Other topics will include the British invasion, the music industry, hard rock and heavy metal - even disco. The course will be taught daily during the semester and students will finish with a project that will demonstrate their knowledge.
Thompson said it will fill the niche for students who still have room for electives after having completed all the others in their area of interest.
The History of Rock and Roll was one of several new courses the board of education approved Tuesday.
Two others revolve around sports after the success of hockey academies that have run successfully at Centennial and Riverside secondary schools for the past two years.
A Hockey Coaching and Development 12 course has been developed for those two schools using Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam ice arenas, and will expand on Hockey Skills 10 and 11.
Meanwhile, Gleneagle secondary will be offering Sports Medicine 11 to introduce students to the basics of sports training and sports injury prevention and recovery. Students will learn sports first aid, taping, anatomy and physiology of sports injuries, among other things.
An independent studies course, Law 12: Introduction to Policing, was also approved, as was a new course called Urban First Nations 12: Expressing Your Truth that is being piloted at CABE (Coquitlam Alternative Basic Education) and will promote self-discovery and learning about traditional and First Nations culture.
$500k FOR SD43
The harmonized sales tax might be a divisive topic in some quarters but Tri-City school trustees decided to take a pass on discussing the controversial tax Tuesday after it was pointed out that it's actually saving School District 43 money.
According to officials, the district will get a rebate of $500,000 on the purchase of goods and services this year and further savings are predicted if the HST isn't axed and rate decreases are introduced as promised.
The savings could be as much as $78,000 for each 1% drop in the HST, the board of education was told.
Trustees decided not to comment on the information presented by assistant secretary treasurer Bob Janzen.
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
