"Did you know that William Shakespeare was the original
rapper?" you'll shout at your students.
They'll all look at one another and shake their heads. Malik, who will be sitting up front, will
raise his hand. You'll point to him and
say "Yo" as a means of prompting him to speak.
"That's a pretty gross mischaracterization of
contemporary hip hop, and of Shakespeare's plays," he'll say. The class will make noises of gentle
agreement in response but you, reacting to what you perceive as "h8r
spch" will respond by shouting:
"OH SNAP! LOOKS
LIKE WE GOT A CHALLENGAH! RAP BATTLE
TIME!"
Malik will sigh and stand up from his desk. This will be a common occurrence in your
classroom, as will be what comes next.
You'll spit awkward rhymes at Malik (at one point rhyming
"everything you knew" with "could fit into a shoe") while
he patiently waits for you to finish.
Once you're done you'll sit down, having won the rap battle in your
estimation. In the meanwhile, the class
will, during your rap-off, have begun to have a thorough discussion of
Shakespeare's histories in comparison to his comedies and fictional
dramas. Most of the students will claim
that the histories, while significant culturally for establishing a record of
British conceptualization of Roman history during Shakespeare's era, represent
weaker literature overall, but a handful of students will contend that some of
the most interesting structure in Shakespeares work occurs in his middle period
histories. Once you start catching wind
of the nuanced discussion that students are engaging in you'll scream:
"DON'T BE HATIN'!" at the top of your lungs,
briefly derailing a few of the discussion groups before your students return to
the process of ignoring you while discussing literature with a depth and focus
that you will be thoroughly unable to
follow. In your mind, this will mean
you're getting through to these kids.
The reality will, as is often the case in your life, be far removed from
your perception thereof.
Congratulations Dangerous Minds Teacher!
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