Hip-Hop Rebuffs NCLB

By Mari Rice, WireTap
Posted on August 14, 2007, Printed on September 8, 2008
http://www.wiretapmag.org/education/43199/

The Hip-Hop Social Forum, hosted by the National Hip-Hop Political Convention (NHHPC) Atlanta local organizing committee on July 28, 2007 at Georgia State University, was as dynamic and energetic as hip-hop itself. Community activists, educators, youth and aspiring hip-hop artists gathered to speak on a wide range of topics exploring the connection of hip-hop and the larger society. Using hip-hop music and culture to enhance education is a concept gaining greater academic acceptance. The relationship between hip-hop culture and schools were a major part of the forum's workshop discussions.

Steven Waddy of the NHHPC served as the moderator of the Taking Hip Hop to the Schools panel. Panelists included Bernard Cook, Dallas Austin Foundation; Minister Server, Temple of Hip-Hop; Sister Rah (Rabiyah A. Karim-Kincey), WRFG and Big Nel, I am Hip-Hop. Workshops included How to Use Hip Hop in Your Curriculum, The No Child Left Behind Act and High Stakes Testing.

Sister Rah said it is important for young people to learn the foundation of hip-hop, which is based on social consciousness. She pointed out that artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc and Sha Rock (the first female hip-hop emcee) are an important part hip-hop's legacy, adding that break dancing, new forms of poetry, and emceeing all sprung from this culture. She noted, "When future artists understand the history of hip-hop, they'll be able to [view] networks like BET and MTV and make a decision on what they feel is acceptable and unacceptable."

Presenters at the forum asserted that hip-hop is an expressive manifestation of the past and current experiences as well as the collective consciousness of African-American culture. Minister Server stressed that hip-hop can be found in any educational subject including math, science, english and history. He asserted that hip-hop artists have addressed issues of social movements such civil rights as well.

"It's important to make education relevant to young people," said Server. "If there is anything more powerful to build or to destroy our youth, it is hip-hop,". He continued saying, "We want to teach youth more than the motorcycle dance, booty shaking and the importance of having rims. This has overshadowed the true foundation of hip-hop that we want to bring to the forefront."

Another workshop discussed the controversial No Child Left Behind Act and high stakes testing in the schools. Dr. Philip Kovacs, assistant professor of education at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and chair of the Educator Roundtable has been working to end NCLB via an online petition with over 30,000 signatures. Kovacs reported, "Rather than focus on achievement gaps in schools, we might ask what NCLB has done to close other gaps that clearly result in poor educational development as the healthcare gap, homeownership gap, the wage gap and children living below the poverty line gap."

The online petition lists several reasons for the dismantling of The No Child Left Behind Act including:

• The law's simplistic approach to education reform wastes student potential, undermines public education, and threatens the future of our democracy.
• Misdiagnoses the causes of poor educational development, blaming teachers and students for problems over which they have no control.
• Assumes that competition is the primary motivator of human behavior and that market forces can cure all educational ills.
• Mandates data driven instruction based on gamesmanship to undermine public confidence in our schools.
• Uses pseudo science and media manipulation to justify pro-corporate policies and programs, including diverting taxes away from communities and into corporate coffers.
• Places control of what is taught in corporate hands many times removed from students, teachers, parents, local school boards, and communities.
• Requires the use of materials and procedures more likely to produce a passive, compliant workforce than creative, resilient, inquiring, critical, compassionate, engaged members of our democracy.

Janice L. Mathis, Esq., executive director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition's Peachtree Street Project spoke about challenges in the education system in Georgia where third graders are expected to pass the CRCT -- a standardized test of academic ability. Mathis said the state has repeatedly failed to properly fund Early Intervention, a measure designed to assure that all Georgia third graders are reading on grade level. Reports show that $30,000,000 was cut from Early Intervention. Forum participants discussed significant changes that need to take place in the educational system in order to ensure educational reform that will result in positive student learning outcomes for public school children.

The Hip-Hop Social Forum was a powerful event meshing the hip-hop culture with a commitment to transform the negative stereotypes promoted by the powers that be in corporate America. The forum opened up important dialogue on issues facing educational, political and social institutions. The Atlanta event made one thing clear: A generation grounded with a knowledge of history and belief in hip-hop cultural pride can reshape and re-energize education and society in general.

Mari Rice is a freelance writer living in Atlanta, Ga.

© 2008 Wiretap Magazine. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.wiretapmag.org/education/43199/