I just read a post on NYC Parent blog about the mayor's new plan to bring bling to the kids by texting them messages from rap stars and ball players (after school, of course), telling them to stay in school and to study.
It is obvious to me (and about every other teacher) that our kids don't need to hear any more from these celebreties who never took school serious to begin with. Too many of them think they are going to grow up to be ball players and rappers and don't need their educations. These messages are from people who made it without the education. These celebrities are the exceptions to the rules about education. Besides, kids have enough bling. The picture is one I took of a kid's belt buckle last week. This kid should be a junior and has almost no credits earned. School he needs help with, bling he does fine on his own.
My school does not have a worthwhile tutoring program. There are so many kids around that it is not safe to walk in the halls during the change of classes. Our classrooms are disgusting. Classes are over the limit.Kids are given internship periods to fill holes in their programs and are forced to sit on the floor outside the office to which they are assigned because there is no space inside. Kids are barred from the library because it is filled to capacity. Kids need help to succeed. If only the message from Jay-Z could do that.
3 comments:
I have boxed with Jay-Z at the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers and if he could come to my class wearing a very expensive business power suit and speaking proper English he is welcomed. Actually I did ask him but for security reasons he couldn't.
I do agree that the kids don't need anymore celebrities in their lives and that a good education is the way out. Precisely what a soft spoken and very prospers Jay Z would have said to them!
One of the problems as I see it is that young boys and girls have no heroes. Their heros are rappers who wear lots of bling,and "sing" about hoes and beeotches. I think some of the best meaning teachers need to rethink how social studies is taught. We will never get the students to "buy" into real heros if we teach social studies using a boring text book. Jay Z may be cool.., but Fredrick Douglas is mad dope!
well said!
Post a Comment