Tuesday, January 27, 2015

KRS-One May Visit Cholla High Culturally Relevant English Class Tomorrow

Posted By on Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 4:00 PM


Rapper and producer KRS-One is performing tonight at the Rialto Theatre (doors open at 7 p.m. and tickets are between $18 and $20).

If you haven't heard his music (you should check it out), then you might remember him as one of the artists mentioned in the notice of noncompliance former superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal sent to Tucson Unified School District earlier this month, on his last day as schools chief—on the notice, he said some of TUSD's culturally relevant courses were in violation of the law that banned the Mexican American studies program, A.R.S. 15-112. With that, the state once again threatened to cut TUSD's funding if they didn't fix whatever the state thinks is wrong (the way teachers have been implementing content in the classrooms, according to Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas) by March 4.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I visited one of the classes at Cholla High Magnet School that Huppenthal pointed out was in violation of the state law—U.S. history from the Mexican American perspective, taught by Corey Jones. Huppenthal didn't like that class and said the use of Rage Against the Machine's "Take the Power Back" was one of the reasons why.

This guy, who shall we mention was caught posting rather racially hateful blogs and comments under the pseudonyms Falcon9 and Thucydides (he called people in government assistance programs "lazy pigs") last year, also pointed fingers at two other Cholla classes (as well as a few at Tucson High and Pueblo High), among them Andrew Walanski's culturally relevant English from an African American perspective class for using An Introduction to Hip Hop Presented by Master Teacher, KRS-One.

There is a rumor going around, according to a TUSD official, that KRS-One plans to visit that class tomorrow. 

I guess we'll find out soon.



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