This is the video I wanted to show Monday night but ran out of time to! I think that the work Tim Rollins and Kids of Survival creates is not only wonderfully creative in its formal characteristics, but I also believe that the content is more worthwhile than any Rembrandt or Van Gogh.
Tim Rollins accepts students into his classroom that have otherwise been passed over. He believes in each of them and ignores every societal stereotype that kids from the Bronx are placed under. The Kids of Survival have superior art skills that were ignored in the traditional setting and Rollins after school program provided an outlet for that creativity. There is a long documentary about the group that is worth checking out, particularly for one scene when Rollins tells a student that he must bring in his Nintendo to Rollins so that the student would have time to study for school. It was either give up the Nintendo, or give up the program. The boy chose to give up his Nintendo.
The articles we’ve been reading in Volume 2 stress so much that we need to look at each individual student’s culture and then address our lessons, to see if there is anything we could change to incorporate the students home life or interests. That makes school more engaging for students and will push them to the path of success.
I had such a good time with my group making our lesson and sharing it with the class! We thought 2 1/2 hours seemed like the most difficult of time to fill up, and we were probably going to run out of things to say before class got out. But it was entirely the opposite! We had to rush to get all our bits in at the end that we really wanted to share with the class. We loved hearing everyone’s responses and creativity with the poems though! I also had never heard of hip hop education before, but it makes so much sense after being shown the video! We do need to “keep it fresh.” Overall I’d say it was a successful night!
Teacher Post Script 