Nonsense and common sense

The “nonsense” letter about me is truly deserving of some common sense. But first, I want to thank the author (whom I believe is a ghost writer) for creating the opportunity to share what I teach and a little common sense.

The author needs to know that KHS’s Social Studies Department is the only high school with their students on target to meet the 2010 goal for SAT scores to be equal with our counterparts on the mainland and this was accomplished under my leadership as the Social Studies chair. We all teach to address the Standards & Benchmarks of PSS and the expectations of the SAT exam, which extends to all the communication skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking and the cognitive skills of critical and analytical thinking. I teach the sciences of anthropology, archeology, sociology, geology, political science (basic government), economics, and the use of geographic tools. It is total nonsense to accuse me of teaching about hip-hop in the context of teaching these sciences and art. But I can assure the author that every child that finishes one of my classes has been affected in a positive way academically, morally and socially. It’s obvious the author didn’t have the common sense to come and see my classroom or see me teach before making his nonsense assertions that were based on one poster.

As for the “hip hop culture figures in my classroom,” that is the only thing the author was right about. The “nonsense letter” was all about the obvious assumptions the author made because he may have heard about a poster in my classroom, as he lives in CK, not Kagman. FYI, the poster features my niece, who is a rapper with a positive message. My family members have a 32-track studio in the basement of my home in the States and I wanted to share that with the students because they do relate to rap. I knew the kids could relate to her and would appreciate the poster, which is probably how the author heard about it. The poster was not about promoting the hip-hop culture but my niece. Furthermore, if you know anything about NMI history, the Chamorro culture has gone from wearing no clothing to FUBU, which is hip-hop culture attire. It’s too bad the author is so concerned about hip-hop culture now because it is way too late to stop the spread of hip-hop and I had nothing to do with it. So the nonsense author can stop hating and even come and spend some time in my classroom because it’s obvious he or whoever wrote the letter is full of nonsense about hip-hop being taught in my classroom.