He told us about the way the pedagogy in schools is not helping the youth of today.
He introduced his idea of hip hop education and called upon people in the audience to come in a circle and start a rap session. He would go on and start eloquently forming rhymes and words that went together and were detailed, flowed and were well articulated. He integrated words I had never heard before but the message was there.
He showed videos of classrooms from the beginning of education to current education and it had not changed at all.
The way that we teach children has been the same since we segregated schools.
it's no wonder that the urban youth doesn't feel compelled to learn- we separated them and told them a long time ago that they weren't allowed to be educated to a certain extent and now we want them to sit down, be quiet and listen to us?
Especially when we have two different ways of listening we cannot expect children to thrive in a schooling system that is rigid, dry and unrewarding.
Christoper said "post secondary education is racially determined" during his speech.
I think this speaks to the way the pedagogy is in school and how it doesn't speak to everyone not just the urban youth. But the big focus was on "hip hop education" and how we do not have a current system that speaks to kids.
This speech reminded me of three readings we have done in class.
The first one is "Why can't she can't she remember that" because the author Terry Miers talks about how implementing an important relevance with kids and characters help form an understanding of what and what not to value in life. If we teach kids young that people of color, men, women, and disabled individuals are all of equal importance for the advancement of our culture it would help the future teachers that are being read these stories to change the pedagogy of their future. By breaking the mold of an old stereotypical pedagogy we can create a new world, as the keynote speaker says.
Another reading this speech reminded me of was The Silenced Dialouge by Lisa Delpit.
She also talks about the importance of addressing the culture of power and the ignorant stereo types places in publications and stories. By reassesing value and importance we reassess and change education. By understanding that all students need to be taught their own way (we are not teaching one culture, we are teaching many) we can change the pedagogy to be more engaging, interesting, and speak to all individuals.
The third reading that this speech reminded me of was by Ira Shor "Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change" who additionally talks about changing the current pedagogy. Students should not to be expected to be sponges for mass implemented state regulated information, but for information that will transform their way of thinking. If we teach children something that is true, they will value it and keep it with them forever. If we speak to the children who feel like they've been forgotten from the education system and it's labeling, standardized testing and boring lectures then we can spark a change in a pedagogy that does not currently excite students to their greatest ability.
"The mind is a terrible thing to waste"
This quote is derived from the advertising agency Young & Rubicam and goes back more than four decades.
I believe the key note speakers point was that race is still a barrier and there is a system of segregation in schools still by catering to the culture of power.
Here is a ted talk by the keynote speaker.
Here is a link to a webpage about old ads about the mind being a terrible thing to waste : link.
Here is a video of someone labeling our current pedagogy as an ingrained DNA of teaching.
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