The Schools Are Destroying Freedom of Speech

This article written by John W. Whitehead discusses the issues with high school faculty limiting, to almost eliminating freedom of speech for students. While annotating the article i came to the conclusion that his audience will mostly be high school students, and their parents.

He starts of the article by using a survey as an example of how our nations high schools are struggling to teach students the value of freedom of speech, as well as our constitution. He uses the survey to say "As a result, the horrific lesson being taught to our young people is that the government has absolute power over its citizens and young people have very little freedom".

Later in the article Whitehead shares stories of real people who have fallen victim of freedom of speech in there schools. One story is about a girl named Brittany McComb who was valedictorian of her high school. Her letter was denied by the school board because she wrote about religious beliefs, she also had few bible verses as well. Knowing her letter wasn't approved, Brittany used the original letter instead. While she was giving her speech, faculty noticed it was the original copy and unplugged her microphone.

I believe Whitehead did a good job on this article because he got his message across quickly. He also had good usage with surveys, and stories to help him explain what actually is going on in schools across the nation. This article makes me think that schools are killing creativity and stopping students from being the person they want to be in life.

How Hip-Hop Music Lost Its Way

For this weeks blog i decided to read the article how hip-hop has lost its way and betrayed its fans. At the beginning of the article the author says "African American teenagers are beset on all sides by dangerous myths about race". So i believe the author is hoping for a young African American age group to be reading this article. The author starts of the article by saying how rap music started out with a large variety of themes but has led its way to a medium of worshiping misognyn, materialism, and murder, which if you listen to hip-hop today it seems to be true with some of the lyrics.

The author uses a great example of how the narrowing of hip-hop culture started with the story of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. These two were using lyrics, and music videos to insult and threaten each other, or their rivals. Which led to the death of both of the famous rappers. During the article The author says "The events that led up to the shooting show how recording labels now exploit violence to make and sell records". Know a days rising rappers will use violent and threatning lyrics to be notice and create buzz for their new projects. The author also says how living in the inner city and being around this music can cause a chain reaction of violence and crime in young listeners, or other young rappers to use that in their lyrics.

I believe this author did a good job of using examples of how, and why the rap industry has changed so much. I also believe he has good ethos because the author is African American himself. To me this article shows how sticks and stones may break your bones but words will sometimes hurt you. If rappers keep using vulgar lyrics in their music, hip-hop will quite possibly be dead.

Music is us (free Choice)

For my free choice blog i have decided to write about something that is a must have in my life, and that is music. Imagine a world without any music, nor instruments, scary isn't it? Music is something that inspires us, relaxes us, motivates us, hypes us, even saddens us. I'm not trying to say that people need to start listening to music, because every single person on this planet listens to it. I believe music helps us shape ourselves into the people we become. Music can also be a source of what you might say natural medicine, helping us feel better about ourselves and just uplift our soul. Also music can teach us things about the world that teachers cant really teach us in school, which can help us expand our minds and view things in different ways. Music will always be there when we need it, just like a best friend. Bob Marley once said "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain" and i find that to be true. So in conclusion remember that music is always there for you whenever you need it, and hopefully that will never change. Sorry this blog is pretty random but it was just something i wanted to get out there.