The Time I used Public Enemy as a Teaching Tool

It seems like educators are called to fix every social ill and the current state of affairs is no different. As our country is again being reminded of racism and discrimination that take place everyday, there are calls for schools to step up and fill the need to help end this societal disease.  California's State Superintendent spoke words that rang out to me.  He said,

“Today we should be in a classroom helping students process all that is happening around us,” he said in a statement. “Schools must be part of the solution because a great education is the most important part of the path out of poverty. But opportunity gaps for black students have persisted for more than a generation. The war on poverty declared more than 50 years ago seems to have been lost.” 

I cannot imagine that any educator could disagree with this statement.  For those that often complain that we are asked to bear too many burdens, let me offer a different perspective.

I used to teach geography to sophomores.  One day we were mindlessly going through he motions of our textbook when one of my students asked about a tiny graphic in the corner of a page.  It was a diagram of the slave trade routes.  His interest turned into classroom interest.  Two thirds of my class was African American and the level of curiosity on the topic told me that I was not doing enough to meet their educational needs.  From that point on, we jumped out of the textbook and I created a unit on the slave trade that even included an exercise in breaking down the lyrics of the Public Enemy song, Can't Truss It.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  Imagine a classroom of students marking and writing on their lyric sheets while they bobbed their heads to the music.  It was great. This didn't make me a hero to my African American students.  I proved to them that I would go out of my way to meet their needs and help them develop their own perspective.  They knew I was there to educate them.

As a white man, I think I exceeded their expectations and many barriers were broken down that might have only been perceived.  If my students and I relied simply on our implicit biases it may have played out differently.  I likely would have dismissed the new adventure as someone that was not credible to them because of my skin color.  They could have dismissed me as only telling the story in a way that was convenient to a white person.  There are a ton of ways that this activity could have become disingenuous to both student and teacher.  What happened was that I gave all of my effort to meet the needs of my students that were hungry for knowledge and social perspective.  Educators, this is our super power.

We are agents of change for so many social problems like bullying, poverty and racism. We should see this as a badge of honor and really take this distinction seriously. The next time someone complains that the schools should be doing more to fix a problem, know that the complaint you heard was a huge compliment.  Right now it is time to put on your capes and be ready to teach beyond what is expected of us when we come back.  They will need us now more than ever with the challenges that our country is facing.  They need our calm and our super powers.  Meaningful change takes place one person at a time and it can start in our classrooms.  As you plan for next school year, let's find ways to meet these challenges and be proud that society expects us to do it.