In Hip-Hop’s early years it was scrutinized as a genre by popular media, the government and the general public for being violent, obscene and destructive to the communities of America.
Coupled with the popular opinion that “the streets” have ways of taking kids out of their desks in the classroom and to the corners of their local neighborhoods, Hip-Hop’s educational value was deemed limited from the start.
But not so fast - according to a recent CBS news story, hip-hop music is being used in New York City’s public schools to teach 9th graders about science by writing rhymes and rapping.
The pilot program uses Hip-Hop music to teach science in ten of New York City’s public schools and was founded by Dr. Chris Emdin of Columbia University’s Teachers College.
“The people who most embrace hip-hop culture are the same populations who are most disinterested in school and disinterested in science,” Emdin explained in an interview about the rapping science program.
“To me, the markers of success are the students who see themselves as scientists, who are having conversations about science,” Emdin said.
In seeking ways to engage minority students, Emdin formed an alliance with the Wu-Tang’s The GZA, who has been a guest speaker and instrumental in the children’s development.
Even though the GZA dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, the GZA says he has a lifelong passion for science that he wants to share.
“The goal is just to awaken the children, make them more aware and embrace science and everything connected to it,” GZA said.
The work with New York City’s school system comes on the heels of GZA’s work with some of the world’s top physicists and cosmologists at MIT and Cornell University, as they consulted him for his project Dark Matter, verifying the scientific possibilities of his rhymes.
According to the CBS study, across the country, the latest study of high school seniors shows Asians had the best average test scores in science. Latino and black students had the lowest.
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