they schools

(from my myspace)


what do you think of my new profile song?

please, do tell me what you think, about the song and what i'm writing.

dred prez doesn't pull any punches.

i'm going to try to write here about something i feel strongly about without editing or stopping because i'm overwhelmed like i usually do.

the song is a good reminder that so so much about the school system works for the status quo while beating the drum that if you try hard, you'll do well, you'll get a job, you'll succeed. the extent to which that can be true for some people is far overshadowed by how often school teaches us to resent adults, to get away with what we can when no one's looking, to stare at the clock and wish away minutes of our life until the bell rings, to look for the right answer not the interesting question, the gold star or the A plus not the powerful or complex idea, that our worth is bound up in grades and rankings...

and that was all in good old edina public schools. on the other end of the money and power and color spectrum there also, yes, the fact that the school system ignores the daily reality of kids and the history of their people in this country and does nothing to change the system.

the song says "i love education but if education ain't elevating me ain't getting me where i need to go, then fuck education. this whole school system can suck my dick, biatch." at the root of this is the same feeling that i've seen over and over in so many kids: no one is helping me understand why i need to know this, or why i have to fill out this "bubble sheet" or why i'm being asked to learn in exactly the same way as everyone else or i'm labeled dysfunctional or disabled. almost everything about how school and teaching is organized serves bureaucratic institutional needs, not human needs. we're "taught" so many things by plunking down isolated facts and memorizing and regurgitating and moving when the bell tells us for the next set of facts from the next overworked idealist or jaded paper-pusher with the next sanitized formulaic textbook "covering" the next bits of "content"... this does not result in deep or useful understanding even with passionate teachers ample school budgets. i believe kids love learning. most of what we so in school beats this out of them. "i tried to pay attention but they classes wasn't interesting." we've all felt that, the utter uselessness of vocab lists and quizzes and cramming in info so soon forgotten.

the song says "ya'll know they don't give a fuck about us." so. yeah. i still wanna be a teacher and "change the world" but i know i need to do it by giving a fuck. every day. about they kids as people above all else. meeting them where they're at and accepting who they are and rejecting everything else that gets in the way of teaching them what they need to know. they need to know how to love themselves. they need to know how people have been strong and resisted and fought together and made history. they need to know how to comminicate with all kinds of people. they need to know how to make peace. they need to know they are their own greatest teacher.


okay i'm done. i give myself 9 out of 10 for effort, 4 out of 10 on clarity. ha ha ha!

__________________________________________
Lyrics:

Why havent you learned anything?

Man that school shit is a joke
The same people who control the school system control
The prison system, and the whole social system
Ever since slavery, nawsayin?

[verse 1]
I went to school with some redneck crackers
Right around the time 3rd bass dropped the cactus album
But I was readin malcolm
I changed my name in 89 cleaning parts of my brain
Like a baby nine
I took a history class serious
Front row, every day of the week, 3rd period
Fuckin with the teachers had, callin em racist
I tried to show them crackers some light, they couldnt face it
I got my diploma from a school called rickers
Full of, teenage mothers, and drug dealin niggas
In the hallways, the popo was always present
Searchin through niggas possessions
Lookin for, dope and weapons, get your lessons
Thats why my moms kept stressin
I tried to pay attention but they classes wasnt interestin
They seemed to only glorify the europeans
Claimin africans were only three-fifths a human being

Hook:
They schools cant teach us shit
My people need freedom, we tryin to get all we can get
All my high school teachers can suck my dick
Tellin me white man lies straight bullshit (echoes)
They schools aint teachin us, what we need to know to survive
(say what, say what)
They schools dont educate, all they teach the people is lies

You see dog, you see how quick these motherfuckers be to like
Be tellin niggas get a diploma so you can get a job
Knowwhatimsayin but they dont never tell you how the job
Gonna exploit you every time knowwhatimsayin thats why I be like
Fuck they schools!

[verse 2]
School is like a 12 step brainwash camp
They make you think if you drop out you aint got a chance
To advance in life, they try to make you pull your pants up
Students fight the teachers and get took away in handcuffs
And if that wasnt enough, then they expel yall
Your peoples understand it but to them, you a failure
Observation and participation, my favorite teachers
When they beat us in the head with them books, it dont reach us
Whether you breakdance or rock suede addidas
Or be in the bathroom with your clique, smokin reefer
Then you know they math class aint important less you addin up cash
In multiples, unemployment aint rewardin
They may as well teach us extortion
You either get paid or locked up, the pricipal is like a warden
In a four year sentence, mad niggas never finish
But that doesnt mean I couldnt be a doctor or a dentist

Hook(first part of hook twice)

Cuz for real, a mind is a terrible thing to waste
And all yall high class niggas with yall nose up
Cuz we droppin this shit on this joint, fuck yall
We gon speak for ourselves
Knowhatimsayin? cuz see the schools aint teachin us nothin
They aint teachin us nothin but how to be slaves and hardworkers
For white people to build up they shit
Make they businesses successful while its exploitin us
Knowhatimsayin? and they aint teachin us nothin related to
Solvin our own problems, knowhatimsayin?
Aint teachin us how to get crack out the ghetto
They aint teachin us how to stop the police from murdering us
And brutalizing us, they aint teachin us how to get our rent paid
Knowhatimsayin? they aint teachin our families how to interact
Better with each other, knowhatimsayin? they just teachin us
How to build they shit up, knowhatimsayin? thats why my niggas
Got a problem with this shit, thats why niggas be droppin out that
Shit cuz it dont relate, you go to school the fuckin police
Searchin you you walkin in your shit like this a military compound
Knowhatimsayin? so school dont even relate to us
Until we have some shit where we control the fuckin school system
Where we reflect how we gon solve our own problems
Them niggas aint gon relate to school, shit that just how it is
Knowhatimsayin? and I love education, knowhatimsayin?
But if education aint elevatin me, then you knowhatimsayin it aint
Takin me where I need to go on some bullshit, then fuck education
Knowhatimsayin? at least they shit, matter of fact my nigga
This whole school system can suck my dick, beeyotch!!