If I had a dollar for every time I was handed a book on how to teach or incorporate hip-hop in my classroom \u2013 at least looking at my bookshelf \u2013 I\u2019d have seven dollars. And I realize that seven texts around creating culturally relevant curricula through the use of hip-hop isn\u2019t all that excessive, but lately it\u2019s had me thinking. <\/p>\n
First, I\u2019ll provide a bit of seemingly frivolous back-story: I grew up immersed in music. I listened broadly and made pointed personal connections in the myriad genres that now fill the cluttered CD shelves throughout my abode. I listened to hip-hop, Appalachian folk, and 20th century classical indiscriminately. I feel that, like many other teachers, I \u201cget\u201d hip-hop (though a case could be made that it cannot be \u201cgotten\u201d). <\/p>\n
The problem isn\u2019t hip-hop. The problem is that there is an unspoken assumption that hip-hop is the answer (the unspoken problem thus being how to get students engaged). Before student teaching, I\u2019d been immersed in the tropes of the feel good teacher films. I still watch them if only because the formula is so pristine in its execution and pacing from one film to another: Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Sister Act 2 (you didn\u2019t know that was a teacher movie??), Half Nelson, etc. Watching enough of these I knew that to be a good teacher in an urban high school meant playing socially conscious hip-hop and watching the \u201curban-ness\u201d of the surroundings melt away from the angels that my students have become. Many of the books I\u2019ve looked through appear to offer this kind of quick fix solution. Hip-hop, as a result has become a veritable panacea to our literacy problem. Hallelujah! <\/p>\n
The only problem is that it\u2019s not. Hip-hop isn\u2019t the solution. I question how many teachers are grabbing their IMA funded Tupac CD and playing a single song and feeling like they\u2019ve connected for the day. How many hip-hop fans have brought in that sole Mos Def CD or Dead Prez album (you know which one I\u2019m talking about), and felt like they were authentically culturally responsive?<\/p>\n
The vast majority of my students today do not listen to hip-hop. Have no interest in it. If I were not paying close attention, I wouldn\u2019t know the differences between reggaeton and hip-hop. Even if I did, it wouldn\u2019t be the solution either. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, this isn\u2019t a diatribe for or against hip-hop. It\u2019s a long-winded attempt to point to the fact that what our schools (and the texts that our district and our BTSA induction programs provide) are claiming as culturally responsive is limited, debilitating in vision. We can\u2019t give people the direct tools for this kind of curriculum in the classroom; we don\u2019t know a given teacher\u2019s students or those students\u2019 experiences. What can be changed is how to provide teachers with an understanding of recognizing the cultural and community experiences that need to be reflected upon and utilized within a class. There are some great texts around this issue, but most of the ones I\u2019ve been given are of the play-this-Nas-track-and-read-Prufrock variety. <\/p>\n
The hip-hop as panacea trend is an extension of the kinds of caged-in institutionalized practice that traps students into class structures. Cultural responsiveness should be an innate part of one\u2019s teaching practice. It cannot be scripted, it cannot be found by reading up on the latest teen trends online and it definitely cannot be found in the appendix of the latest instructional book you\u2019ve just been handed. <\/p>\n