I mean what teacher could resist not wanting to study and dissect a rap song after hearing [in that song] a line like: “real G’s move in silence like lasagna.” I mean, that line just screamssssssssss “include me in your curriculum-fast!” huh?
Well not so fast.
A Boynton Beach Florida teacher is under the bus (by her own maverick) and officially suspended for giving her eighth grade students and homework assignment on rapper, Lil’ Wayne’s song titled: “Six Foot, Seven Foot.”
Simile’s, metaphors, hyperboles, and predicates may very well be much apart of Lil’ Wayne’s rap repertoire, but who would have predicted it would ruin the teacher’s rep?
She should’ve.
After assessing her student’s confusion and struggle with understanding poets like Shakespeare, the teacher decided that Lil’ Wayne’s song was a good song to study wordplay in her language arts class.
The teacher who, according to headmaster of the Charter schools: Wayne Owens, otherwise has an “unblemished” record, would be suspended for three days and he explained: “The lesson was for students to learn to identify literary devices. The teacher had already introduced Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare. Students were having difficulty grasping the concepts of literary devices such as: pun, simile, metaphor, so the teacher used colloquial material. This material did not meet the school’s standards and was not approved. The teacher recognizes that it was totally inappropriate for a school assignment.”
Well, make me feel bad already.
When one of my BFF’s friend’s son’s was around 13 years-old, we would go off (into another world) while listening to Lil’ Wayne’s “Carter III” CD (we would sit in the back seat orchestrating which songs to play, skip and come back later to, etc.), then one day our Lil’ Wayne lyric-kindred spirits aligned: We both learned that we absolutely, positively could NOT get enough of Lil’ Wayne’s “Let the Beat Build.”
Whoa Nelly watch out now!
From there on, it was show time with us two. My friend (his mom) would just laugh and shake her head because the two of us would be going AT it (like we were in a rap battle); spitting the lyrics at another like we were getting paid for it!
Oh, I can hear him now, and reaching to hold my arm: “Ang, Ang. Peep how he actually let the BEAT build man, then goes IN man!”
He and I were so obsessed with that song (
and Lil’ Wayne’s entire “Carter III” CD) that we would drive around for hours going hammmmmmm in the car-ingesting the lyrics and rapping our asses off to all of it (with a special replay emphasis on: “Three Peat,” “Let the Beat Build,” “Phone Home,” Shoot Me Down and “Don’t’ Get It” …………….WHILE: Evaluating his flow, metaphors, puns, punch lines, and other “literary devices” that we found to be phenomenal.
So in defense of [or should I say]: in “understanding” the teacher’s plight; Lil’ Wayne’s later song [in question + subject of this write up:
“Six Foot, Seven Foot”], trust me, makes me go hammmmm, too, with its metaphors, constant, uninterrupted flow, and its other “literary devices” that obviously, were vices rather than virtues for a class of eighth grade/thirteen year-old students.
But hey *shoulder shrug, arms out in surrender, lips folded downward*
I understand.
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