The Sound of Music
Written by
Dominica Beverley
CAST
Sharon Lee (SL)
Regional Education Laboratory (REL)
Veda Brown (VB)
Margaret, Donna,
Alison (MDA)
(They
are considered to be one person; as one source)
Marc Hill (MH)
Dominica Beverley (DB)
[It is a cool Friday evening;
Kendrick Lamar is having a concert at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Many fans
are in attendance and as “The Crew” pulls up in the parking lot, you can hear
the bass from one of his songs, “Poetic Justice”, emanating from the
arena. After the concert, “The Crew”
goes out to dinner then back to campus to chill.]
Sharon Lee: (kicking off her
heels and sits on the couch) Whew! Kendrick Lamar did his thing out there.
He puts on a great show. Don’t you guys think so?
Veda Brown: Yea girl! I just like the beats of his music. They make
me wanna dance all over the place.
Margaret, Donna, Allison: I wish I could listen to this music
during school or at least play it while I’m working on an assignment. I would
be jammin’ but at least I would get my work done.
Regional Education Laboratory: Does that not distract you? You know
that you get distracted real easily; you can see that in your grades.
MDA: No, It helps me focus actually.
Marc Hill: I agree with MDA because I feel motivated to do my work
when I listen to music. It’s like I block out everything else and I focus on
the task at hand.
Dominica Beverley: I understand what REL is saying but saying we get
distracted when listening to music could be a stereotype. Not everybody can
focus while listening to music, but everybody is different so some people may
use music as a way to concentrate.
SL: Not only that, music has some type of psychological effect on
people especially students like us. Music is mostly used to motivate us or to
comfort or change our mood. Just think about when you are working out or
cleaning up your room. You can’t have no slow songs playing while you tryna
bench press. I mean, if that’s your thing then so be it, but different types of
music have different effects on people.
REL: I mean majority of the students at our school are categorized
as those who are lucky to have made it to college and since they made it here,
they are predicted to be struggling throughout their courses. I see this as
problem.
VB: I think that introducing something that they are familiar with
such as music, whether it is hip hop or not, into the classroom setting, they
will have some sort of motivation because they can relate to something from a
cultural standpoint as African Americans and Black students. I mean it is
easier to learn something if you integrate it with something you are interested
in.
SL: Well how do expect these professors
to integrate these concepts and materials that could potentially enhance our
learning experience?
MH: I figure that scholars have
gained considerable insight into the extent to which hip-hop does things to young people, but they
have learned very little about the motivations, processes, or nonclinical
consequences of youth engagements with hip-hop.
DB: Uhhh… English please.
MH: (takes a deep breath as if he is
about to explain in layman’s terms) Well…
SL: I got this Marc. (turns to DB)
What he means to say is that the professors know what effects hip hop has on
the youth but they don’t quite understand how and why they have these effects
on the students. Luckily, I can answer that. It all has to do with the
psychological processes that music affects. Whether we know it or not, music that
is played in our environment and our surroundings can have some effects on our
mind. Several theories propose explanations for arousal or excitement caused by
music. When applied to listening to background music, this means that any given
person has an optimal level of arousal at which they will perform certain tasks
most effectively, and music can help him achieve that optimal level. Meaning
that, in a culture where music is constantly playing all around us, it is
important for parents, students, and teachers to understand how music may help
or hinder us in the completion of our tasks.
DB: I get it now, but just because they understand how it works doesn’t mean
they will use it in their instruction. I wonder why.
MDA: I think it’s because some teachers don’t know how to incorporate it in
the curriculum or don’t know whether it is allowed to incorporate in the
curriculum. The challenge for educators is to determine how pop culture is connected to, addressed, included, and excluded
in classrooms. Instruction must provide opportunities for students to think
critically and to develop their facility with 21st-century texts.
VB: Well if they could include music in the curriculum, then adolescents'
attitudes about school, material success, appreciation of themselves and others
will seem to be shaped to a large extent by the music they listen to.
DB:
True. Well it’s about that time. I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow in class. I’ll
get my dose of hip hop whether it is in class or not (laughing ).
[DB leaves the group and goes back to her
room. The rest of “The Crew” starts to disperse in their own way and it’s lights
out.]
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