Critical Pedagogy

While there are, of course, elements of popular culture that I find to be oddly popular the practice of integrating that content into the standard (dominant) curriculum goes to the basic principles of pedagogy that have been emphasized to me intensely: 3 times 3 ways, connect old to new, and make it fun. The latter was a piece of advice that really connected with me when I was in high school. Why must school be tainted with the begrudging attendance of a slog through the muddy groves of academe. Why must a student ever bewail the tired battle cry of an obdurate receptacle: “when will I ever use this, what does it mean to me?” If a student utter either of these statements there is first of all a lack of student voice. Secondly there is, as the text demonstrates, no bridge between their world (popular culture) and that of the subject matter.

I am very much a product of the dominant American culture. I am a white, middle class, male from suburbia. As a result, I am not a fan of Hip-Hop or the stereotypical cultural elements that surround it. I have nothing against people who enjoy it; it’s just not my cup of tea. But my personal tastes have absolutely nothing to do with my duty to my students. It is my responsibility to get my future students to meet the standards in whatever means accomplishes that goal. Thus, while I may have been a little skeptical as to how their lesson plan was going to work, I found it to be brilliant. Furthermore I thought it would be a good idea to try and have them write a beat for one of Shakespeare’s sonnets (or any other poem). Not only would it have them identify the form of a sonnet, but it would also force them to assess the emotion of the work and build that into the musical element.