School of Thought for Schools

Introduction

The final project for Paideia II: Making Decisions for U.S. Schools involved a representation of each student’s philosophy of education. Traditionally this would be a standard paper about each student’s philosophy but not in Jim Langholz’s class; he likes to think and allow his students to think “outside the box” so he said we could represent our philosophies in any manner that seemed appropriate and effective to the student. The options were endless. Students were free to compose music, create artistic masterpieces, make movies, and whatever else seemed conducive to representing their educational philosophies. Professor Langholz hoped these less stringent guidelines would lead to more thoughtful projects that would be more meaningful for both the student and the audience (this is symbolic of his educational philosophy it seems). At the same time, I think he would rather not read 25 papers on similar issues in the middle of May. When Professor Langholz informed my class that he wanted to give us more freedom and flexibility for our final project in this course, I immediately knew what I wanted to do.

I have an affinity for hip hop music. I am not talking about the garbage on the radio but rather passionate and poetic songwriting by clever wordsmiths. This less mainstream brand of hip hop is often called “underground” or “intellectual” hip hop/rap. Underground/intellectual rappers are not in the rap game as a business. For them, hip hop is art and for some it is life. They do not rap about bling and bitches but rather are concerned with witty wordplays, storytelling, and discussing important issues including racism, poverty, and politics.

Currently, I think much of our education is too much like mainstream rap. It is seen as a business or job for many people. Just like mainstream rap, it perpetuates society’s emphasis on materialism and mass production. As mainstream rapper DJ Quik pointed out, “if it don’t make dollars, then it don’t make sense.” It seems that society through such medias as mainstream rap as well as education is indoctrinating this ideology in our kids. For example, when a student asks what the significance of some vague math concept is, often times the teacher responds by saying something like, “you need to know how to do this to move up to higher levels of math so that you can get into college and eventually get a good job to make money.” In other words, the only legitimate reason that teachers can conjure up about why certain subjects in school are important is that they will eventually allow the student to make money. I would rather have schools teach our kids skills and knowledge that enable to make a difference in the world not just make a living. There is too much hurt and there are too many problems in our world that run the gamut from economic to political to environmental to social. Mainstream rap does not care about these issues; underground and intellectual rap are often passionate and proactive about such issues. Not only does non-mainstream rap talk about real world issues, problems, and solutions in its lyrics, it also inspires change. Underground and intellectual rappers are often activists. I feel that our current education system in the United States of America is, like mainstream rap, too apathetic, indifferent, and uninspiring about the problems that plague our planet. It may be beneficial to attempt to incorporate more of underground and intellectual rap’s ideologies in our education system and abandon any and all factors that resemble mainstream rap. I believe education can prepare students to act in ways that may not “make dollars” but can still “make sense” or be important. Hip hop allows rappers to cope and make sense of things, express emotions and thoughts, connect with others, be creative, and consider real world problems. Listening to hip hop allows people to hear the stories of others, learn about what problems they are passionate about, witness art, hear poetry, and learn about different cultures. Hip hop can excite the listener and rapper, comfort them, inspire them, educate them, and even just bring a smile to their faces. Schools have (or should have) similar goals. As I mentioned earlier, real hip hop (that is rap that is mainstream) is art. There is intrinsic value in art. There is also intrinsic value in the education of our kids that goes beyond preparing them for a job. Schools that resemble mainstream rap which may the norm these days ignore or forget the intrinsic value of our youth and their education but there are ways to incorporate the values of underground and intellectual rap into our education system and as a result better acknowledge the intrinsic value of our youth and education while better preparing students to understand and address the hurt in our world. I will stop with this more traditional manner of discussing my educational philosophy and let my rap do most or the rest of the talking.

So, I wrote a rap for my final project. I was initially worried that my lyrics would come off as corny. Then I thought, “who cares?” As long as my lyrics discuss ideas that I believe are important to education and are not terrible then who cares if they are somewhat corny. I started by brainstorming a list of ideas that I saw as major components in philosophy of education. I provided that list below to show how my brain was working before jumping into my lyrics.

Brainstormed List of Important Components in my Educational Philosophy

• School should be engaging and even fun
• Student choice should be valued
• Field trips should be more common
• Curricula needs to better connect to real world problems
• Schools need to educate and expose kids to real world problems and
• Schools and assignments should provide opportunities to tackle problems (service, research, etc.)
• Teachers should not assign busy work
• Schools should “let kids be kids”
• Schools should better interact with community and families
• Schools should encourage extracurricular activities
• Schools should challenge kids
• There should be less traditional and standardized testing
• Schools need to recruit more and better teachers
• More funding is needed
• Teach more skills as opposed to facts
• Schools should develop foreign language skills at young age
• Integrated learning (making material overlap between classes) needs to more common
• More classes should be team taught
• More class should incorporate differentiated instruction
• Smaller classes are important and should be more common
• More alternative schools (mixed grades, single gender classes, home schools, etc.) would be beneficial because they can better cater to kids and find out what is and isn’t effective (trial/error)
• Recess is important
• Schools should provide healthy meals
• Classes need to allow for group work and improve teamwork skills
• Electives are valuable and under-funded
• Schools need to teach students to be life long learners and passionate global citizens

Lyrics

Hook:

Lets talk about kids, schools, and books

Time to teach kids that they're important no matter their looks

Schools be stealing childhood from kids like they crooks

with so much worthless busywork, tests, and gobbledygook

too many real world problems in schools get overlooked

this is my school of thought for schools, enough with the hook

Verse 1:

This is my school of thought for schools

My doctrine for America’s boys and girls

Its time to prepare them for the world

By encouraging growth more than enforcing rules

I’m done making deals and dealing with fools

Screw the busy work, our kids aren’t mules

Schools gotta help kids reach the top like a stepping stool

On the road to success, school’s not a road block but more like fuel

Hook

Verse 2:

Ima spit a little rap, express my mind via rap lines

About some of the big questions of our times

Like what should teachers teach and how?

And how to make our kids say “Wow”!

Schools gotta realize kids aint dumb, school should be fun

Schools gotta treat each kid equally and like they is Number One

Teachers need more freedom, have class outside, play in the sun

Let the kids wander and let them run, teach them that learning in life’s never done

Hook

Verse 3:

Back to the Basics, get kids active like running shoes by asics

environmental crises, social injustices, be proactive, time to face it

inspire youth to stand up and change it, rid the world of hate and racists

this is what schools need to, they might say they do, but they fake it

Schools are too caught up in teaching trivial facts and recording test scores

Who cares when Pocahontas was born, this is the worthless knowledge I abhor

Let's rather teach kids how to learn, grow, care, and explore

about the globe, our planet, its cultures, its hurt, and more

Hook

Verse 4:

It’s time to change America’s education system

There are too many problems in the world but kids don’t get ‘em

With better education, teachers and schools could try to fix ‘em

Lack of excitement in schools makes them feel like prison

All we’re really doing is programming robots that listen

Schools need to inspire kids to be active learners and global citizens

Light the fire in our youth to make working for change their mission

I want this fire to be big and I want it hot, make it sizzling

Hook

Verse 5:

Schools right now are more problem than solution

if education was nature, schools would be pollution

for countless reasons like unequal money distribution

and poor preparation in our teacher education institutions

and lack of ability to train or excite our kids to make a contribution

to the world they live in, provide a shock like electrocution

nah but really, weve identified flaws, now its time for a resolution

schools need to rebooted. about time for an education revolution

Hook

Verse 6:

Screw ranking students, why are we so obsessed

With measuring and comparing our kids to the rest?

Like, on average who is best, east or west?

We’re forgetting that treasure doesn’t only exist in chests

All our kids are treasure no matter what the data says

The system’s so messed up that it seems possessed

It’s a little bit weird that in a country where we’re so blessed

That the only we can evaluate our kids is with a frickin’ test

Hook

Verse 7:

Kids can't jacked to learn cuz classes are too focused on grades

Forget the As and GPAs for a bit. Let kids be kids, let them play

Allow for student choice on assignments, let the students have a say

Students will benefit if they can pick topics of interest this way

As a teacher, I want to differentiate my instruction

This will allow my classes to better function

And ensure that all my students come away with something

These are real goals fam, I ain’t fakin or frontin’

Hook

Verse 8:

Aight, all I’m doing is using my brain and imagination

Im dreaming about the future of education

For whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians

Creating classrooms that are amazing is my inspiration

This ain’t fantasy like Pixar animation

It’s reality son, it’s history in the making

The norms in U.S. schools aren’t working so let’s break ‘em

There are opportunities for change, so let’s take ‘em

Links to My Favorite Underground/Intellectual Hip Hop

The songs linked below are great examples of creative storytelling, witty wordplay, and intelligent content.

Little Man by Atmosphere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG00EsjCFWc

Be by Common

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp4_r8_MMho

Forest Whitaker by Brother Ali

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ScPoBEFl1Y

Commencement Day by Blue Scholars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRkhiFmsPHU

Connect For by Common Market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5teQ7x3yNXw

Africa Must Wake Up by Nas & Damian Marley ft. K’naan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvXit6N3M5E

Moment of Truth by Gangstar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH3hrtp1T84

Hope by Pete Philly & Perquisite ft. Talib Kweli

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Y1pUwME2k

Heartsprings by Heiruspecs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmZ9umLuEp0

Conclusion

The problems in our current education system are obvious but the solutions are a bit harder to come by. If our schools do not cease to resemble the negative side of mainstream hip hop, I don’t think these problems will mitigated. Schools in the United States have the potential to become the most valuable and beneficial institutions to society but first our schools need to adopt some of underground and intellectual hip hop’s axioms of creativity as well as connection and involvement in real world issues. Again, school’s need to move away from the mainstream rap ideal that, “if it don’t make dollars, then it don’t make sense.”

The Perpetuations of Society's Paradigms in Education

I have recently started to become more and more frustrated with a few paradigms in our culture. First, I am bothered by the idea that more or bigger is better. This has obvious ramifications for environmental issues, greed, and consumerism but I have started to think about it in terms of education and specifically work that is assigned in schools. Often times, I feel as if educational institutions at all levels perpetuate this idea that more is better in the forms of excessive amounts of homework and the like. My frustration here is maybe better described by relating it to the commonly held ideal in our nation that progress, movement, action, and work all seem to be honored or thought of as valuable no matter what. In school, the more you study the better; the more books you read the better; the more AP classes you take the better. And the list goes on. While there are obviously some positive benefits to this desire for more and better things and actions, I think too often the results, consequences, and tradeoffs are ignored. This limits time, energy, and desire to take part in other valuable parts of personal growth and societal membership. I do not believe that allowing kids to have extra this extra "free time" for lack of a better word would be all bad. Again, it may only lead to more screen time for some youth but there would be other benefits. On top of this, I think my previous word choice of the word "free time" may have conjured up some negative connotations (such as not productive, wasted time, lazy, etc.). As was previously mentioned, this is because of our country's affinity for more and bigger and better as well as general output and production. "Free time" also has some extremely valuable consequences such as relaxation, exercise, fun, rejuvenation, creativity, etc.

I think we are too busy as a nation and this starts when kids are young. Kids need to be kids. Likewise, college students need to be college students. Heck, parents need to be parents too but are often too busy with work. We are prevented from fully taking advantage of all of the life experiences that used to be correlated with specific life stages because we are too busy and caught up in structured behaviors. My dad used to play baseball everyday in the summer with his buddies for hours and learned to love the sport. I don't think I was able to gain the same appreciation for baseball during my childhood as my dad because I often resented going to baseball practices or games because my summers were too organized and structured. Playing baseball for my dad was a completely kid organized activity and in some ways more voluntary. Today, it seems the majority of youth sports are highly structured and adult organized. Kids seem less attracted to these activities.

I work as a camp counselor at YMCA camp in northern Minnesota during my summers and one specific story jumps out from last summer that relates nicely to this train of thought. While on an overnight with a group of 10 year old boys, my co-counselor and myself decided to take a break from the kids to sit back and relax after a long day of running around after the little fellas. We expected to be pulled from our conversation to break up a fight or answer questions about girls or when dinner would be ready. Instead, we were pleased to see the kids wrapped up in completely made up role play game where each kid was a different animal with different capabilities and skills. The point of the game was to survive the longest and even though the rules for survival were spontaneously determined, there were no fights or arguments. Some of the kids even made their own habitats and shelters. The campers invited us to play and we had a blast. It was actually one of the highlights of my summer. One of the most insightful kids in the group told us that he enjoyed the made-up game so much because "there were no grownups telling us what to do." It was completely kid run.

Maybe I would have liked baseball more as a child if it was more kid run like it was for my dad. What if school were more kid run? More student choice in projects and topics is not an extremely novel idea but I believe that it could be more commonly integrated in schools. More free time may even be a good thing. My campers were able to develop their creativity, incorporate knowledge about the dynamics of ecosystems, and work on cooperative and problem-solving skills. Some of the same consequences may be seen in the classroom if students were allowed to be students. Another idea that is running through my head right now is the possibility of taking some parts out of school curriculums to allow for more student choice in education. This extra time in the school year could also be used for service projects or field trips or other learning experiences. This would be valuable at the individual as well as societal levels.

One more frustration I have with our education system is the fact that kids spend the first 18 years of their lives (or longer for college bound students) cooped up in the classroom with minimal direct real world exposure or experience. I think we could be using schools to bring about valuable change in society while simultaneously better preparing our youth for the real world and educating them about the state of the world. Our children could learn while beginning to tackle such problems as climate changer, hunger, and poverty by engaging in service projects or even research in their communities. So, while this rant kind of jumped around, it is critical of some aspects of society's mindset especially in regards to schools. For one, society is too concerned with quanity of production and not the quality, overly structured lifestyles, lack of choice, and lack of real world exposure. Despite all of this, there is hope for American schools.