In West Philadelphia born and raised...

I am still trying to get over the problematics of the teacher in the Walcott article who said that she just taught the theme song of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air as a carrot to teach the "important" stuff. That comment completely minimizes the work they had done on the song and actually causes more harm than it would have been to just not learn the song in the first place. Why do teachers sometimes feel that they need to trick students into learning? Why are teachers so fearful to teach music outside the Western, European cannon? Is learning rap music in school problematic in that it makes music education in America the study of "monoculturalism" instead of multiculturalism? What is the issue? A lot can be learned and a lot of issues can be spoken about in the context of a hip hip education as it relates to the lives of students and society than would be brought up without it. It enables a dialogue. How disheartening to know that some of the teachers who are attempting to tackle something as large and important of rap and hip hop are not addressing these issues and are instead using it as bait to get the students interested in the "important stuff."