Over the course of the last month, rapper Jay-Z has issued a scathing retort to the use of autotune; a pitch distorting technology that has become prevalent in hip-hop circles. On a song entitled Death of Autotune, he calls for the end of the phenomenon and declares a “moment of silence” for the pitch altering technology that has evolved to become a voice-altering phenomenon for both hip-hop artists and hip-hop culture. Jay-Z’s argument is that autotune has negatively affected the voice of hip-hop in too many ways. He argues that it distorts an individual artists voice and turns it into a mesmerizing, futuristic sounding tune that may sound great, but that lacks originality.

Rosa Clemente, a Hip Hop activist and journalist discusses the importance of Hip Hop culture and its expression of social reality for Black and Latino/Latina urban youth. She particularly examines the situation of women, as they interact with an often patriarchal, sexist culture. She looks at gains women have made in their struggle to express themselves through Hip Hop. See:http://www.zcommunications.org/zstore/7

    There I was preparing a written response for a teacher training course when I got stumped.  Deborah Meier wrote that one of four important steps to building trust and equity in US public schools is to, “[p]rovide equal resources to the rich and poor—in terms of the money we spend on kids as well as the qualifications of their teaching staffs.” (ed. Meier & Woods, Many Children Left Behind: How The No Child Left Behind Act is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools, 2004)

Dear Freire Bloggers, Consider International Spherical Achievement Networks! It is my intention through the 911Educators website to stimulate voice from varied sources and alert the international public that immediate ACTION is imperative in order for young people to achieve their full potential. The mission of this site is to engage and merge global input concerning the topic of literacy. Literacy, in the context of 911Educators, encompasses 21st century aspects of reading, writing, speaking, viewing, and listening. It is an all-encompassing approach involving a 3D perspective, self, school and society which introduces the idea of Spherical Learning Environments. The distinctive puzzle piece site logo is representative of the goal, which is to find the pieces that have broken the spirits of young people and take the challenge of reconstructing this massive puzzle. The number, 911, is symbolic of an emergency situation.

My last few blog entries have been somewhat negative--Blame it on blogging during a hot flash. Today I have positive things to say about life (read education). There is an elementary school in Gary called Banneker. This school is in the heart of Gary, the children at this school suffer from the same issues as children in other schools--poor health, single parents, poverty, school with few resources--yet this school is succeeding where others fail. Banneker has been named a four star school in Indiana for the past sixteen years--the four star rating means it is #1 amongst all elementary schools throughout Indiana. As I said earlier this school doesnot get anything the other schools don't get and yet... I visited the school for the first time last week (during their 5th grade graduation) as a start to a research project into WHY? this school and not others. As soon as I entered the school I felt a positive air and I do not just mean the positive sayings decorating the hallways.

I am honored and humbled to be in the same space with all the great minds that are a part of this project. I look forward to sharing with, and learning from, all of you. May we bring light to the tunnels that lead to freedom of thought and lead generations to see the world as it should be and not as it has been shown to us. One of my favorite songs is “The questions” by Common and Mos Def. It’s one of those rap songs that gets right to the point… Simple, no long intros, no calculated ad-libs hiding just beneath the surface of the instrumental guiding you to anticipate yet another lackluster verse from another generic rapper. Not this track. It goes straight to the hook and right to the point.

Like most of us I just completed my semester. I taught a class on urban education to new graduate students in an urban education program. Although my class was quite diverse the assumptions/myths in the class were anything but diverse. It surprises and saddens me when I have students who parrot the beliefs of society. Especially when these are students who have a concern for urban education. In class I heard them describe urban schools as jungles with uncontrollable students. Throughout the semester I had to constantly drill into my students heads the need to be more critical and analytical when discussing urban education. Ask themselves why they would use the word "jungle" to describe urban schools? Why would they blame the students (who after all are children) for the problems (discipline) and not look at the teacher, the curriculum, the administration, etc?