Contrary to popular belief, rap music is not a fad.
Rap’s popularity has been on the rise since the 70s, and from the looks of things it’s going to continue to do so.
Generally speaking, America’s younger generation has already accepted rap and hip-hop music.
While not all of us choose to listen to it, we do understand that it has become a part of our culture.
Along the same lines, some public schools across the country have begun trying to relate to this aspect of their students’ lives by using rap music in their lesson plans.
The instructors using this new method of teaching understand that their students relate to this type of music.
While a lot of mainstream hip-hop involves themes such as sex, fame and violence, many critics do not take the time to see the valid poetry that lies within rap music in general.
Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade, a UCLA professor who designed some of these rap music lesson plans, said that it is important to recognize rap songs as “legitimate academic texts.”
Although artists such as Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG did not lead the lives of ideal role models, no truly objective listener can deny their poetic skills.
Duncan-Andrade agrees that a lot of mainstream rap music portrays the “wrong” message but he realizes that, regardless of this fact, children are going to continue to listen to it.
Instead of fighting this, he says educators should embrace it and use it to reach children that could not have formerly been reached through conventional teaching methods.
When he appeared on Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor, he addressed the importance of a six-year study that was done, involving more than 1,000 students, which looked at the ways that rap/hip-hop lyrics could be used as effective tools to get students interested in the academics of the songs.
In essence, the study suggested that it is important to begin with something a student is already familiar with and build on that.
By doing so, it becomes easier to teach them about the academic texts required in the curriculum.
The opposing arguments to these types of programs are endless.
Some claim that important literary works should not be replaced by rap lyrics. These programs are not attempting to replace anything. They are simply trying to bridge students from what they are familiar with to the classic literary works.
The ideal student could read Shakespeare and interpret its meanings as those that could parallel modern life, but not all students learn in this manner. These are the students that would benefit from this type of program.
Others argue that part of being a high school student is learning how to read literary classics, interpret them and apply them to modern times. This may be true, but if Duncan-Andrade is presenting a new way to get students to appreciate literature, why not give it a try?
It seems those who oppose this idea do not have the students’ best interests in mind. Instead, they are more concerned with the effects rap music could possibly have on the lives of these children.
What they need to consider is that these students listen to rap on a daily basis. Their lives are already being influenced by it.
Maybe instead of chastising this, educators should attempt to build on it.
Isn’t it at least worth a try?

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