Hip hop music is easy to criticize. It promotes violence and materialism. It glorifies gang life and drug dealing. It's full of cliches, sexism, and homophobia. But every once in a while, someone new comes along and does something that challenges the status quo and changes the industry. Seattle-based rapper Macklemore is doing just that. His hit single Thrift Shop pokes fun at spending $50 on a Gucci T-shirt and instead glamorizes purchasing second-hand goods. With its popularity (#1 Billboard single and over 110 million views on YouTube), people have gone beyond the catchy tune to appreciate it for the message it conveys. A less-known single of his has created a different kind of buzz. The song, Same Love, promotes gay rights and equality.
In November of 2012, a Michigan teacher was suspended for playing Same Love for her students. We must ask ourselves, would the school or community have had the same reaction if the teacher promoted equal rights for a different minority group? In our country's short history, each minority group has had its time to fight for equality, and with each battle, we have become more inclusive and more tolerant. The gay rights movement seems to be the modern-day Civil Rights movement of 1960s.
Cycle Three's overarching question is: Should the curriculum address controversial issues? The question is really quite simple to answer. As Thornton (2009) explains, "the least educated are precisely those who are most inclined to be prejudiced against gay people." (p. 362). If our goal is to eradicate hate, prejudice, bias, intolerance, or bullying that targets any minority or group of people, we must teach our students to understand who those people are.
Many teachers and administrators are afraid of the community's reaction to gay rights education; and with the aforementioned suspension, rightfully so. What makes this equality movement different from say, women's suffrage, Title IX, desegregation, or the disability rights movement? The difference is that the gay rights movement challenges many religions' fundamental beliefs. Religious groups, such as Focus on the Family from the Eckholm (2010) article, believe that early lessons on sexuality and gay parents advocate a lifestyle that goes against the group's Christian beliefs. I would like that group to consider that premarital sex goes against Christian values as well, but most would agree that learning about sex in health class is not intended to promote premarital sex; it's intended to equip students with the knowledge they need to understand the subject and make educated decisions. We should view gay rights education in a similar light. Students are going to learn about homosexuality anyway. Wouldn't it be best for them to learn about it in a safe setting that promotes tolerance and understanding? As the superintendent Mr. Messinger, from the Eckholm (2010) article, explains, "This is not about advocating a lifestyle, but making sure our children understand it and, I hope, accept it."
There will always be controversies and taboos (politics, terrorism, religion, drugs, sex, etc.) that would be easier to ignore than to address in the classroom, but they are a part of students' lives and for that, we cannot ignore them. We should help students make sense of their experiences outside the classroom and help them learn about the world around them. However, we must be selective in what we decide to add to the curriculum. Take, for example, the Silin (2009) article entitled HIV/AIDS Education: Toward a Collaborative Curriculum. The lengthy, narrow-focused article advocates for HIV/AIDS education to be a part of the health, science, and economics curriculum. Sure, HIV/AIDS education is important, but the author would have it be an emphasis across the curriculum. Silin seems to be another person that wants to add to an already-full curriculum while ignoring other taboo topics because of his special interest in the subject. Perhaps the information in the article would have been more applicable if the author had made a case for specializing curriculum for those that are disproportionately affected: gays and bisexual men of all races, African Americans, and Hispanics.
Should the curriculum address controversial issues? What are the effects if it does? Do those outweigh the effects of not addressing controversial issues?
Should hip hop address controversial issues? It has. And look at what happened.
Christopher,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thought provoking article and introduction. I was honestly appalled to watch the news clip you included about the South Lyon teacher that was suspended for playing, Same Love, in her classroom. It made me question my own view points about teaching controversial issues in the classroom. I do think they should be addressed but am hesitant about the backlash. However it also validated my worry of teaching controversial issues without parent or district support. I think about the grounds the school gave the teacher for putting her on suspension stating that the clip shows “political, religious, and homosexual views,” and wonder if that was justification for suspension. I mean, aren’t history and social studies classes full of political views? As Stephen Thornton addressed, “one high school world history textbook I examined, for example, shows how, through military genius and statesmanship, Alexander built a “multicultural” empire.”
I think it would be much easier to teach a college course with controversial issues where all students are considered adults. You would not have to worry about any backlash from parents about the issue and could address anything at the start of the discussion.
Towards the end of your blog you did make a few points that I would like to address. I think about your view point that Silin wants to add to a teacher’s already overflowing curriculum. I do disagree with this statement, although I can see your point of view. What I feel that Silin was trying to do was explain to educators all the opportunities they really have in the classroom to talk about HIV/AIDS, how easily the topic can be addressed. Silin mentions that “rather than creating elaborate instructional guides based on formal ordering of facts, it would be far more helpful to ground the curriculum in the issues that children themselves find challenging.” If you pair this idea with the other article we read in class, Silence on Gays and Lesbians in Social Studies Curriculum I feel we were suppose to get the message, “You don’t have to teach or add to your curriculum you just have to be aware that these controversial topics are everywhere and can be addressed of the teacher is aware of them.” Last point that I would like to discuss is your comment that you wished the article made a case to “specializing curriculum for those that are disproportionately affected: gays and bisexual men of all races, African Americans, and Hispanics.” I suppose I wanted to know a little bit more what you would want the author to do this. Would this be a way to add to HIV/AIDS curriculum in later years? For instance, talk about HIV/AIDS in elementary school and in high school discusses how it affects these sub-groups? Or, was your main point that it is hard to hold validation to what Silin is saying when he did not state anywhere in this article the vast differences of how HIV/AIDS affects these groups?
Thank you so much for your blog and extremely interesting opening! I also appreciated your shared information.
~Ashten
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post! Awesome work. I learned so much, and really enjoyed the way you ran with the theme.
First off, I loved the Macklemore video, Thrift Shop. I love the way he took something white liberals like myself have been doing for a long time (I mean in certain circles, dumpster-diving is viewed as the ultimate stance against corporate greed and human commodification), and turned it into something a bit more transgressive, that hip-hop culture might embrace (but with a way better sense of style!). The video was both funny but with lots of dropping of the f-bomb actually make this into both an interesting act of personal and political rebellion. Cool stuff.
And then you work to the video, Same Love. Boom. Great video, and then to see a Michigan teacher suspended for playing it. Wow. That really brings everything together. The article quotes the teacher as saying "I'm very disappointed in the bias, the bigotry, that I feel that they're really hiding behind." I'm not exactly sure who "they" is, but assuming district administrators, I can only say: wow, good for her. She didn't back down at all. I think this type of stance among teachers is incredibly heartening. It's a step toward reclaiming curricular agency for teachers!
This goes to show that these types of discussions can be increasingly had in all types of environments: South Lyon, but also maybe inner-city Detroit. Frank Ocean, Wade Davis, these are role models that, as your article notes, wouldn't have existed 15 years ago in the black community. Your post really helps us see the existing opportunities all around us for addressing these issues in both our implicit and explicit curricula.
I get your beef with the Silin article. It's long and it's outdated at this point (it was originally published in the early days of AIDS). I do tend to agree more with Ashten on her take on it. But I also know that article has struck different people quite differently. In this day and age, any attempt to add one more thing to the plate of schools seems overwhelming. Which is why I think it's always important to return to purpose: What are we trying to do in schools? What are our moral, emotional and intellectual responsibilities to kids and communities? Sorting through those answers helps with all sorts of everyday curricular decisions.
Thanks again for a great post!
Kyle