Michelle Malkin writes that some school teachers are forsaking Shakespeare for Tupac in an effort to "reach" inner-city youths.
Have you checked your child's summer reading list? Beware: Some lame-brained school officials have decided to ditch the sonnets of Shakespeare for the tripe of Tupac.Amazing. We spend more and more on public education each year, and that's the highest goal our educators can set and meet? Getting kids to read something that isn't completely objectionable? That's crap.
That's slain gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur -- the drug-dealing, baseball bat-wielding, cop-hating, Black Panthers-worshiping, convicted sexual abuser who made a fortune extolling the "thug life" before he was gunned down in Las Vegas eight years ago.Teachers in Worcester, Mass., have embraced Shakur's posthumously published book of poems as a way to get middle school students' attention. "We wanted to include books that kids would want to read," Michael O'Sullivan, a member of the summer reading list selection committee, explained to the Telegram and Gazette of Worcester last month before school let out. ''Reading counterculture in schools, and to get kids to read anything that is not completely objectionable, is the goal,'' Deputy Superintendent Stephen E. Mills echoed.
Teachers need to be held accountable for doing their jobs and actually achieving. Many teachers complain that they shouldn't be evaluated based on student performance because some students don't try, and so forth, but I'm getting past the point where I care. More than anything, it looks like many teachers (and the unions that protect them) are just lazy and incompetent.
On the other hand, am I expecting too much? Is it possible that anyone who would voluntarily babysit hundreds of apathetic kids for minimal pay is really capable of understanding Shakespeare's writings, much less teaching them?
Public education is a joke. Not a funny joke, either. It's a waste of money and resources. No one values what they get for free -- not the parents, and not the kids.
(HT: Clayton Cramer.)
Today for no apparent reason I picked up The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn. Now that is a story that a kid can really relate to. Instead of putting Tupac on the reading list, they should be looking for more stuff like Huck. Even inner city kids might be able to relate. I really hate rap culture, and I don't understand people's fascination with it. The black community needs some leaders to step up and instead of embracing this kind of 'black' rap culture, they need to denounce it and place it in the negative light it should be. At least that's what I think.
Sadly, I believe Huck Finn is on the banned book lists in many schools.
heather: Really? I thought every school taught Huck Finn.
JG: It's appealing because it taps into some of our most primative urges and glorifies them. Who doesn't fantasize about wealth, power, and women? That's what rap is all about. Really, if you think about it, those lusts are the essential foundation of evil through the ages.
We homeschool our two kids. That means we assign the summer "reading list".
We are going to study THE HOBBIT. They've heard the story before, but we are going to go through it thoroughly, with spelling words, vocab, life lessons, etc., etc., etc..
And they were actually DISAPPOINTED when dad called off evening lessons for the holiday. How often are kids disappointed that lessons are canceled for a holiday?
"Who doesn't fantasize about wealth, power, and women? That's what rap is all about"
sigh,, i am a christian,, ( Protestant Lutheran)
and i do have a problem with this, the wealth issue. i know i am a sinner and i struggle every day, but my yern for silly amounts of $$ has nothing to do with power,, i want lots of dineros
becouse dineros sets me free ( i dont mean spiritual mind you) i have no interest in having power over others,, i only seek power over my own destiny, wich i logicaly can not have since i am rather poor.
" give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor"
" Farmer stay at your plow"
" look at the little birds,, they have noone of theese things you speak of,, yet the lord takes care of them and nurture them , even the smalest creatures , why should he not do the same for you? "
" if a man asks for your coat,, give him your mantle aswell, give , and you shall recive.
i am confused,,, i know i am suposed to be obedient and do as the " Emperor wishes" as a good christian,, but i refuse. i canot do this,,
i want to crush the " emperor" and seize control over my own life,, am i a freak? maybe it is me that is the anomoly.
m: Sounds like a good plan to me.
GLA: I think your desires are pretty normal, but that doesn't make them right. We all struggle with pride.