The Evolution of an Idea

Subtitle: Music Night
Subsubtitle: My Brother is the Man

Around 7:30 pm, on my way from home to my office I crossed paths with my principal who had just then called it a day. We began talking as we leaned on the fence that separated our yards. He had just had an interview with some learners from last year’s grade 12 class to discuss what strengths and weaknesses they had in English by the end of their secondary schooling. He had done this because only 50% of the grade 12s achieved passing marks in 2009, and although various offices find that rate acceptable, Shapaka thinks “that is not good enough, not good enough.” I continually find my principal demonstrating this obvious, sincere concern for the learners’ and school’s success (did I mention I am a fan of his?). He told me that the learners said they particularly struggled with the listening portions of their exams. I thought to myself, “Hip-Hop Night!” What better way to practice listening than to jam out and read along with the lyrics? I had always wanted to share my strange, underground rap music with my learners because previous volunteers swore that the kids can’t get enough American hip-hop, and now I finally had my excuse!

I planned carefully. I revealed my neo-natal idea to only a few teachers. I only occasionally shared my iTunes library with the learners and subtly asked questions to gauge the demand for such an event. I went through my music and selected a playlist of songs that were relatively slow so as to not be too difficult, reasonably clean (I wasn’t going to concern myself with a few “damns” or “hells”), and contained a positive message. I emailed the list of artists and songs to my brother with my plan for a weekly jam session, and within twenty four hours I had in my possession a word document with the complete lyrics of approximately twenty songs.

The school owns small stereos that accept mp3 players, so I intended every week to just transfer a few songs to a thumb drive and pop it in. On the eve of my first planned music night I tested the equipment, and it failed. The majority of my music files apparently are of the type m4a, not mp3, and the stereo did not recognize them. I would need blank cds. Also, after polling the learners and teachers to learn their favorite artists, I realized that I didn’t own any music by the pop sensations that they know and love (Chris Brown, Beyonce, Akon, Ne-Yo). Moreover, on the few trial runs when I shared my music with teachers it was disappointingly poorly received. A new playlist needed to be created. Vilo and I went through his library and pulled about 40 songs that were exactly what we needed. Slow paced, clearly sung, catchy, and by artists that the learners wanted. It was a Tuesday, and I wanted to try to host the first music night the following day. I shot an email off to Brad: Brad, can you find all of the lyrics to these songs for me in one day? (I didn’t use those exact words, but that was the gist of it.) A file with the lyrics for all but 5 or 6 songs (by international artists) was in my inbox the next afternoon.

So hip-hop night had transformed to simply music night (Britney Spears is NOT hip-hop), but the enjoyment of the learners is far more important than the satisfaction of my bizarre musical tastes.

The first session was going beautifully. We were listening to Alicia Keys. The learners were nodding their heads and singing along as their eyes traversed the lyric sheets in their hands. I defined words and expressions they didn’t understand. I explained that “gonna” and “Ima” mean “going to” and “I am going to”. It could not have gone any better until we were shut down by another teacher. A noise complaint! So maybe hip-hop night turned music night, will turn into music afternoon, but the learners want it, and I have enough songs and lyrics to do this for months. Thanks Brad.