Concern over a new hip-hop curriculum that refers to the founding fathers as “old dead white men” has delayed the program’s rollout for at-risk students, Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Known as Flocabulary, the program is a music-based educational tool that uses raps, rhythms and rhymes to help students learn and memorize everything from vocabulary and English to math and social studies.
The Superintendent has said,
“We’re making sure that whatever we do, first, we do no harm, the science behind the concept is wonderful. There may be some things, though, that are inappropriate that we need to be careful about.”
About 15 teachers have complained or expressed concern about the rap song lyrics, said Ed Allen, president of the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers.
“I just don’t think we were real careful where we deployed it,” Allen said. “Not all parts of it are real affective for the more troubled youth.”
Some of the raps from the class include:
“Andrew Jackson, thinks he’s a tough guy./ Killing more Indians than there are stars in the sky./ Evil wars of Florida killing the Seminoles./ Saying hello, putting Creek in the hell holes./ Like Adolf Hitler he had the final solution./ ‘No, Indians, I don’t want you to live here anymore.”
Do you feel the class is a fun new technique of learning, or an inappropriate way of teaching?
