Educational Rap

AIA-FL Blog ^ | December 17, 2009 | Malcolm A. Kline

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Educational Rap

Malcolm A. Kline, December 17, 2009

When storied public school teacher Marva Collins noticed three decades ago that inner city school children could memorize song lyrics but not Shakespeare, she challenged them to digest the latter. A new educational fad takes a different approach.

“Flocabulary (www.flocabulary.com) is a Brooklyn-based publisher of educational rap and hip hop that is being used in lower socioeconomic school systems across the country and producing incredible results,” the group’s representative, Anna Richardson of Sunshine Sachs, claims. “The Education Research Institute of America (ERIA) just completed a study that proves Flocabulary’s efficacy in the classroom with a 25% increase in state reading test scores for those using the curriculum—which means more funding for these schools in need.”

The rationale? “Imagine a 13 year old boy for whom finishing 8th grade seems like a bridge too far to cross, much less completing high school,” Richardson offers. “He loves music and can memorize all the lyrics to his favorite songs, but can’t seem to remember dates and details from American History or simple algebraic formulas.”...

[SuziQ]

I have absolutely NO problem with this. Some kids learn more easily, aurally, and if singing it, or rapping it, can make the info stick, I say "Go for it!". My sister learned the Preamble to the Constitution from Schoolhouse Rock, and can sing it, word for word, now, 37 years later. Sometimes, when reading about Congressional legislation, I'll find myself humming, "I'm just a Bill, a lonely Bill, sitting here on Capitol Hill". ;o)

Little kids learn their ABCs by singing the little ditty, why not their multiplication tables, or the list of US capitals, or whatever!