A fellow by the name of Will Okun wants to rap and hip-hop his way into the minds of school kids. You see, Okun is a former English teacher who taught at an alternative school in Chicago—and he believes that one method of overcoming cultural barriers in learning is by entertaining the students in a way they can relate.
One has to wonder what has become of our educational system when teachers become entertainers in an attempt to
surmount the apathy students can express for learning. A look backward might give a few clues. In the 1970s, psychologist Ken Gergen created quite a stir for espousing a “relational” view of the world. In this, he posits that
Traditional emphasis on the individual mind is replaced by a concern with the relational processes from which rationality and morality emerge.”
This new “constructionism” boils down to the idea of moving away from a common, imposed set of social beliefs to letting the individual come to their own frame of understanding based upon the dynamics of the time. Educators have embraced this rationale in full. Today, educational institutions try not to force history, humanities, and other academic subjects in the traditional “here is how it is” format—instead encouraging students to “come to their own frame of understanding.”
All of this has come to a rotten fruition in an age of multiculturalism, pluralism, and political correctness. God forbid that an institution impose its world view on someone else. Blacks will be marginalized by white history. Women will be disenfranchised by the great patriarchy. The truth is though, that these dynamics are part and parcel of American history, however diverse we wish to repaint our past.
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