Hip-Hop As A Stimulus to Engage Students Who are Bored in School?



Bought Long Live the Kane sat down and learned every word of it
Sneakin my walkman in the homeroom playin it - Phonte
Often the narrative we get in interesting Hip-Hop songs is that the often  opted for their interest in music instead of focusing on school. We get these narratives and lines from underground artist and mainstream alike.    



 Obviously it's not that artists ignore studies but Hip-Hop is just more intriguing sometimes. Phonte obviously met Big Pooh and 9th Wonder at North Carolina University. 9th Wonder now participates at Duke University looking at the history of sampling etc. Hip-Hop has been used in many different tertiary organizations to be inspected and discussed. The University of Madison even has history with organizations like Urban Word in NYC to promote those who find their strength in spoken word, a brother of Hip-Hop and try to provide them with scholarships.

However the thing pointed out in the video is whether or not Hip-Hop can be used in high schools to build interest in issues of economics and politics etc and motivate disengaged students to re-engage with not just school but society as a whole. I think that it is plausible, I still hold College Dropout to a certain level personally because it opened my ideas to what music can talk about and is one of the first blocks that challenged me to think about the world in which I participate in today.  I wonder if that can be used responsibly in classrooms today? What do you think? What would you use to stimulate thoughtful discussion?

Video was orignally saw here NewBlackMan: Harnessing Hip Hop To Teach Students: Gloria Ladson-Billings on CNN

***
Shout outs: New Blackman
Peace, Love, Unity, God Bless and Keep Safe

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 12, 2012 and is filed under ,,. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

2 Responses to “Hip-Hop As A Stimulus to Engage Students Who are Bored in School?”

  1. This reminds me of H.E.L.P, the Hip Hop Educational Literacy Program. I think hip hop can definitely help kids learn better but I don't think it should be the only way they learn. There's much to Hip hop that can be educational though and that can be used to educate and help students get to the next level of their education most def.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Right I agree, Hip-Hop is only a tool but by no means the only tool. One would only use this accordingly if the person has said interest in the culture such that this doesn't come off as disingenuous etc. How would you use Hip-Hop in the classroom?

    ReplyDelete