Do your best to analyze this piece from Campus progress. What is the exigence/issue that caused this blog post to be written? Is this a report, proposal or a profile? What types of information did the writer use for this story? Where do you think he/she got it from? Is this a good example of student writing? Why or why not?
Hip Hop in school
The exigence behind this article written by a college student, was that fact that the Texas school board completed its new ciriculum sheet, which included a class on music history. Yet no where in the course topics was hip hop even mentioned. Rock and roll, and country are there but not seen is one of the biggest growing movements of the last three decades. A huge cultural and social movement that is just thrown out of the mix of history just because people cant get past the outer layer of this music, the talk of sex, drugs, violence. Nevertheless every other music can be found the same sorts of references and language, which leads to this underlying question of really what is the reason hip hop would not be included in this history course. I would consider this a report, the author is reporting on this event with the use of research and Investigation. On the other hand I could see this as a proposal as well, he is trying to use these facts to convince readers why not have hip hop included in the course it is very revelant and has many things that could be learned from the people involved. I would think the writer had gathered most of his information off the computer and also by interviewing people that share his opinion, like the professor that has written a book on the subject. I think that it is a very well written essay by a student. He gathers lots of hard evidence and facts, and also uses interviews and quotes from people that have an influence or opinion of the movement. He shows through this that hip hop is no different then any other genre of music, that it has validity and relevance to american history even if its a somewhat present undertaking, it effects lots of people and is an appropriate subject to be taught in classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThe Texan school board’s decision not to include hip hop as an important music genre in American culture simply shows that the textbook was written by a bunch of old white people. Hip hop is incredibly influential in millions of Americans lives, especially black Americans. The majority of Black children will live without a father for at least half their life. Many are born out of wedlock, and step-fathers (actually marrying their mother) are rare. Where the father is absent, many blacks turn to rap and hip hop artists as fatherly figures. It is obvious that the black hip hop and rap industry is raising much of modern society’s black youth, so overlooking the genre in history books is complete ignorance. I would classify Andrew Bluebond’s piece as a proposal because he addresses an issue, explains why it’s wrong, and proposes ways that it can be fixed. As Bluedond said, it is simple to train teachers how to introduce hip hop into the classroom. Bluebond included many references to authors of books regarding the impact of hip hop on American Culture. He includes quotes from them as well, hoping to further persuade his point. The author used facts about how other genres were included in the textbook. The author probably researched the issue in news articles and critiques about the new textbook, either online or in the newspaper. While the piece is well written, it certainly doesn’t get to the main point, which is race. White people like country and rock, black people do too (like 1 in a million), but it’s not nearly as popular. Rather than talk about how country and rock are similar in lyrical controversy, which is what he did, Bluebond should have tried to reach a deeper meaning. The book was written by whites for whites, and I think Bluebond should have at least touched on the idea.
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ReplyDeleteThe exigence behind this article is denial by a Texas school board to include Hip Hop in its classes offered to high school students. However, country music and rock ‘n’ roll made the cut. Hip Hop is seen as one of the fastest growing movements in the past thirty years. The school board saw this notable historic time as too offensive to be taught in the classroom. Language was the main reason it was axed from the courses offered. This blog post appears to be a report, stating the decision of the school board. However, as the post progresses, the author uses sources to advocate for the teaching of Hip Hop in the classroom. The author continues to site sources in an effort to persuade the reader to believe Hip Hop is acceptable to be taught in the classroom. It is suggested that offensive lyrics be omitted or changed in order to accommodate those who may take offense. This would allow for the influential genre to be taught in schools without risking the potential consequences of a profanity. The writer was able to interview a knowledge professor and was subsequently able to include the supporting evidence. Information used in this article must have required additional research. The author likely turned to the Internet and other schools decisions to include or exclude Hip Hop when conducting the research. I think this is a very good example of student writing. It was able to keep me interested, make me question the decision of the school board, as well as provide me with useful information. The author wrote their proposal in an understandable and relatable fashion.
ReplyDelete“The Texan school board’s decision not to include hip hop as an important music genre in American culture simply shows that the textbook was written by a bunch of old white people.” I couldn’t have said it any better. The issue that schools like the one in Texas won’t teach Hip-Hop is ridiculous. The fastest growing music movement of the past three decades is in fact hip-hop. By the way the paper is composed I would say that this is a report. The author uses research and investigation to inform the readers about the issue. However, the way he presented the article was like a proposal. He states why hip-hop is important which is an indirect way of trying to make a change. He uses a lot of proof and facts as well as interviews and quotes from people that have an influence or opinion on hip-hop.
ReplyDeleteWhile changes in the history curriculum was being made by the Texas School Board, hip-hop - a musical genre that has vastly expanded in the past few decades - was completely ignored in the new curriculum. Although many other different music genres were included in the new curriculum, hip-hop was ignored due to its obscenities and because of its very recent upsurge into the musical world. This provoked Bluebond to write his blog about the Texas School Board's new curriculum. In my opinion, I would say Bluebond's blog is a report because it analyzes the decision on the Texas School Board using various research techniques and facts. Bluebond uses various amounts of other people's knowledge which he got from both interviews and other resources such as books written by these people. I believe that Bluebond wrote a very effective and well written blog due to his ability to portray a variety of facts from established sources.
ReplyDeleteThe blatant hypocrisy of excluding hip hop from the text book was the exigence for this article. Many will argue that hip hop music has made a bigger impact on our generation than other music genres. The school boards claim that including hip hop music in the curriculum would be too controversial because of its lyrical content doesn't make much sense because every music genre at one point or another has stirred controversy. I would consider this article a proposal because it presents an issue, inquires it further, and presents a possible solution that could satisfy both students and teachers. The writer of this piece gathered information from a variety of sources; an interview with Andrew Ryan,research from books or the internet. This is a good example of a student writing because it keeps readers interested and creates a strong point of view.
ReplyDeleteThe impetus that caused a student response about the Texas School board’s revision of the curriculum is the expansion of music being taught as history but the exclusion of Hip-Hop as an influential genre. They chose to include Rock ‘n Roll and country which both contain controversial lyrical subjects but deemed Hip-Hop unsuitable for the classroom setting based on “offensiveness”. The author uses excerpts and interviews with teachers and writers from all over the country to support their opinion. I feel that this article is a proposal because it identifies both sides of the story and presents a call to action or a realistic and adequate solution for including Hip-Hop into the curriculum. I don’t think the author personally interviewed anyone but rather did research and found previous works by others to gather the information he needed. I found this essay to be of higher quality. The writer uses factual evidence and strong opinionated contemporary sources to effectively support his cause. Personally, I understand The Texas School Board’s choice to not include Hip-Hop. In my mind, Hip-Hop is a pretty contemporary genre and its true impact, whether that be positive or negative, cannot be fully understood yet. Classic rock and genres of old have a strong base in live music and most Hip-Hop is created on the computer and distributed electronically. I think this diminishes the power that music has to draw people together and incite in them a desire to respond to an issue that a song might address.
ReplyDeleteThe unjustified reasoning of the Texas School Board to not include hip hop in curriculum of music influences in the U.S prompted Andrew Bluebond to respond. Andrew explains that the hip hop was not included because the board "deemed some of the lyrics offensive because of their language, violence, and drug use." This is not a liable claim because country music and rock and roll has material that people could consider offensive as well, such as violence in the rock music of Back Sabbath or alcohol content in country music. Andrew presents his case in a report like style, with evidence from different artists and facts about what the school board thought of hip hop. He sites sources and provides evidence to support the case.
ReplyDeleteThe original exigence is the Texas school board's passing of hip-hop as an addition to the curriculum. In part to this, the exigence continues, as the school board did not provide an adequate nor thorough enough excuse for the exclusion from the new curriculum. Moving on, this piece is a proposal which calls for the school board to rethink its decision and proposing that they instead research the subject more, as the piece states that the true reason hip-hop was not added is for the pure reason that it really was not around during the time many of the decision makers were growing up. Because of this, hip-hop is not a part of their culture, although they are overlooking the fact that it is in fact a part of the student's culture. The writer gets information from a number of sources. One such source is the use of Andrew Ryan as a direct subject who has knowledge in this area. His testimony provides ample evidence in favor of the article's purpose and is effective. They also use the knowledge of other areas of the school curriculum to prove that hip-hop is not the only “offensive” topic that could be introduced to the school, since many topics covered in a variety of classrooms already cover topics that many may find are offensive. Overall, the piece is well written and effective. The writer provides enough evidence and support to show strength in his/her writing and brings across the general purpose of the article thoroughly.
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