Spelling and Grammar

 

Jonathan Cox Jr. is a courageous thinker and most fortunately for the Hip Hop Literacy program, he is a writer. I discovered that Jonathan is a writer, not because I saw writing he produced with flawless spelling and grammar, but I discovered that he was a writer while having breakfast with my friend, brother, and Jonathan Jr's father,  Jonathan Cox Sr. On most occasions when I have visited Jonathan's father, Jonathan has been up in his room playing video games, and all I normally see of him is a brief, "Hello." But on this particular occasion, he came to where his father and I were eating breakfast carrying three composition books. He placed the books on the table and he asked me to read them. What they contained was page after page of thoughts, feelings, and reflections regarding his experience dealing with the loss of his mother to cancer. I was impressed and amazed that this then 13-year-old seventh-grade young man would turn to writing as a way of coping with his tragic loss. I knew then that Jonathan Cox Jr. was a writer. When I was looking to expand Hip Hop Literacy beyond lyrics and music into essays and other forms of more formal writing, I knew immediately that Jonathan Cox Jr. was the ideal person to help us enter this new domain. However, when I approached Jonathan with this invitation to be the Chief Journalist for Hip Hop Literacy, he had a tremendously difficult time understanding why I would issue him such an invitation. Based on his experiences in school, writing has been an experience of consistent criticism regarding his spelling and grammar. He was hesitant, nervous, and even scared to write for me because he expected to be corrected and criticized.. However, I was able to explain to him that I am not worried about spelling and grammar. That can be corrected quite quickly, especially with spell-check and Grammarly. But what cannot be corrected is the inability to convey powerful ideas, and I knew without a doubt that Jonathan Cox Jr. would be able to write powerful ideas. I gave Jonathan lyrics to a song, instructed him to listen to the song, and told him after listening, "All I need now is for you to just be you and write whatever you are thinking about as you respond to this song. I was not disappointed. As you will be able to read in an upcoming post, Jonathan made amazing observations about the song, connecting the experiences conveyed in the lyrics to his own life experiences and shared thoughts and ideas that many educators would think are beyond his capacity. The ability to see power and excellence beneath the surface of what traditional schooling finds questionable is what Hip Hop Literacy is all about. From the music and lyrics recorded by our artists to the insights and observations shared by our new Chief journalist, you will discover a depth and quality in the thoughts and observations of youth that will impress, amaze, and hopefully teach you something.