WEBVTT 00:00:10.844 --> 00:00:15.116 When I was 20 years old, i started teaching at a juvenile prison. 00:00:15.116 --> 00:00:17.113 While there were many things that separated us, 00:00:17.113 --> 00:00:21.432 I quickly discovered my students and I had one big thing in common: 00:00:21.432 --> 00:00:23.429 our love of hip hop. 00:00:23.429 --> 00:00:27.609 For the next few years, rap music became the main content for the classes I taught, 00:00:27.609 --> 00:00:31.231 and I saw disengaged students emerge as leaders and experts. 00:00:31.231 --> 00:00:33.599 Through engaging elements of hiphop culture together, 00:00:33.599 --> 00:00:35.480 students and I learned language arts, life skills, 00:00:35.480 --> 00:00:39.079 and to love each other and ourselves more. 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:42.562 As I continued to observed the ways in which our education system is rigged 00:00:42.562 --> 00:00:45.697 against black and latino students and students from low income communities, 00:00:45.697 --> 00:00:49.087 I asked myself what else we as educators could learn from hiphop, 00:00:49.087 --> 00:00:51.966 the insanely innovative and influential global phenomenon 00:00:51.966 --> 00:00:54.822 that has emerged from these very same communities. 00:00:54.822 --> 00:00:57.028 When I say hiphop, I'm not just talking about music 00:00:57.028 --> 00:01:00.209 or music xxx dance, which are considered central elements. 00:01:00.209 --> 00:01:03.414 I'm referring to the blend of instincts, confidence, and ingenuity 00:01:03.414 --> 00:01:05.178 that develops in oppressed communities 00:01:05.178 --> 00:01:08.267 as has been demonstrated through the evolution of hiphop culture. 00:01:08.267 --> 00:01:10.798 I'm talking about the Jamaican teenager in the South Bronx 00:01:10.798 --> 00:01:12.330 taking two records of the same song 00:01:12.330 --> 00:01:14.383 and fading back and forth between them 00:01:14.383 --> 00:01:16.347 to create a new musical composition 00:01:16.347 --> 00:01:19.134 by playing the most danceable segment over and over. 00:01:19.134 --> 00:01:20.569 I'm talking about the inspiring visual artists 00:01:20.569 --> 00:01:23.104 realizing they didn't need galleries to represent them 00:01:23.104 --> 00:01:25.682 for their work to be seen, and instead painting on train cars 00:01:25.682 --> 00:01:28.073 and instantly having an audience of hundreds of thousands. 00:01:28.073 --> 00:01:31.278 I'm talking about a highschool dropout from the projects of mercy 00:01:31.278 --> 00:01:33.553 using his entrepeneurial hassle and rap skills 00:01:33.553 --> 00:01:36.990 to go from selling drugs, to selling CDs out of the trunk of his car, 00:01:36.990 --> 00:01:38.963 to selling products at Macy's. 00:01:38.963 --> 00:01:41.703 This is what my colleagues and I call hiphop genius, 00:01:41.703 --> 00:01:45.233 creative resourcefulnes in the face of limited resources, 00:01:45.233 --> 00:01:47.555 or as it's often said in the hiphop community: 00:01:47.555 --> 00:01:50.504 flipping something outta nothing. 00:01:50.504 --> 00:01:53.778 How could this audacious approach impact our education system? 00:01:53.778 --> 00:01:57.377 For starters, we need to exhibit the brush creativity of hiphop pioneers, 00:01:57.377 --> 00:01:59.536 just as hiphop producers sample songs 00:01:59.536 --> 00:02:01.696 from other genres creating unique new sounds to please 00:02:01.696 --> 00:02:05.086 audience's ears, hiphop educators can borrow from diverse models 00:02:05.086 --> 00:02:08.430 and improvise xxx blends of educational practices customised 00:02:08.430 --> 00:02:10.101 to meet students needs. 00:02:10.101 --> 00:02:12.354 If that sounds to abstract, take a look at the highschool 00:02:12.354 --> 00:02:15.070 for recording arts in Minnesota, where they mix project based learning 00:02:15.070 --> 00:02:19.505 and competency based assesment with artistic, vocational, and business training 00:02:19.505 --> 00:02:23.174 with xxxx and xxx at local colleges, with a heavy dose of student leadership. 00:02:23.174 --> 00:02:26.286 We don't have to do the same thing that's been done before or follow one model. 00:02:26.286 --> 00:02:28.817 We can sample and mix multiple teaching techniques 00:02:28.817 --> 00:02:31.673 and school designs to find the blends that best serve our students. 00:02:31.673 --> 00:02:35.411 We also need to adapt the value hiphop places on staying fresh: 00:02:35.411 --> 00:02:38.476 a hot beat yesterday ... was a hot beat yesterday. 00:02:38.476 --> 00:02:40.357 Whoever sends out to make a hot beat today 00:02:40.357 --> 00:02:43.886 has to do something new and different to remain relevant. 00:02:43.886 --> 00:02:45.535 The world is changing rapidly around us. 00:02:45.535 --> 00:02:48.995 The top ten jobs in 2010 didn't exist six years earlier. 00:02:48.995 --> 00:02:52.687 Hiphop's premium on freshness must permeate our schools. 00:02:52.687 --> 00:02:54.475 And we need to be resourceful. 00:02:54.475 --> 00:02:57.215 In the 1970s, thousands of families chose to replace their 00:02:57.215 --> 00:02:58.399 linoleum floors. 00:02:58.399 --> 00:03:01.209 In poor neighbourhoods, the old linoleum was left in piles on the street. 00:03:01.209 --> 00:03:04.831 Young people, without access to playgrounds or dance classes, 00:03:04.831 --> 00:03:06.387 turned their parent's trash into dancefloors 00:03:06.387 --> 00:03:09.661 and invented new moves like the windmill and the headspin 00:03:09.661 --> 00:03:11.750 to maximize its potential. 00:03:11.750 --> 00:03:13.678 Faced with our own resource constraints, 00:03:13.678 --> 00:03:15.489 educators need to find new platforms, 00:03:15.489 --> 00:03:17.346 what refuges could we be dancing on, 00:03:17.346 --> 00:03:19.088 and what are our new moves. 00:03:19.088 --> 00:03:22.757 Behind the mike, spray cans, turn tables and when it comes to their educations, 00:03:22.757 --> 00:03:25.961 students have brilliant ideas and instincts. 00:03:25.961 --> 00:03:29.189 Hiphop genius is not just about teachers using hiphop songs 00:03:29.189 --> 00:03:31.882 to get kids to succeed in traditional schools. 00:03:31.882 --> 00:03:35.876 It's about changing education to respect and build 00:03:35.876 --> 00:03:37.083 from young people's brilliance. 00:03:37.083 --> 00:03:38.337 It's about the incredible possibilities that occur 00:03:38.337 --> 00:03:39.707 when students are engaged, 00:03:39.707 --> 00:03:42.029 not just as consumers, but as creators. 00:03:42.029 --> 00:03:45.628 We don't need to twig the content inside existing traditional academic structures. 00:03:45.628 --> 00:03:47.788 We need to think outside the classroom and build 00:03:47.788 --> 00:03:50.388 the institutions that are fundamentally more responsive 00:03:50.388 --> 00:03:53.128 to young people's interest and ingenuity. 00:03:53.128 --> 00:03:54.754 We need to create schools and school systems 00:03:54.754 --> 00:03:58.715 that not only teach hiphop, they are hiphop.