“Kicked out of Brooklyn Tech, focusing on looking fresh/
Bright kid accepted to the schools that only took the best/
Bounce like a check, yes, without no hesitation/
I went to college, then I left—that's when I got my education/”
—Talib Kweli, “Over the Counter,” Liberation, 2007.
Sometimes it takes the stinging critique of Hip-Hop artists to wake society up from its slumber; and it is in line with this tradition that I hope the comments made by The Game one week ago would travel further down into offices of government and school boards. On his Twitter page last Monday, Game questioned the sincerity of the education system in educating young people toward a future of self-governance. He asked, “After you learned how to read & do addition, what else did we need school for that we use in everyday life as an adult?” Game was especially concerned about the teach-to-test formula currently in use in most public schools nationwide (NCLB), and whether parents aren’t willingly—albeit unknowingly—handing their kids over to a system set up to preserve the status quo, rather than empower them to change it: “up at 7, out at 3pm five days a week. caught in the matrix but as a parent, I just dropped my kids off @ school & [I get a] break from em’.”
Game pondered if “school was a government's plot to keep track of us & program our lives,” and, like educator John Gatto suggested two decades ago (Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling), concluded many parents aren’t equipped emotionally to challenge the pedagogical models used to educate kids because “school is a babysitter.” Don’t wanna upset her!
For this, Game has been chastised by bloggers and fans, accused of encouraging kids to drop out. That 7,000 students already quit school every day—and only 70% graduate with High School diplomas—is less a concern to his critics. That in the 50 largest cities only 53% graduate on time is another ignored reality. It’s easier, you see, to blame rappers for their “anti-intellectual” comments and content, than to confront the truth.
The education system today is not only a sham, but also, as Game alluded, a booby