Teaching students important lessons through hip hop
By Alyssa Bethencourt
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LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Hip hop in the classroom. That’s the inspiration behind a new course at Grant Sawyer Middle School in Spring Valley. The class uses music as a way to teach kids about their past and their future.
Alyssa Bethencourt visited the school and shows us how the curriculum is making a positive impact one beat at a time.
BEATS & LYRICS
At Grant Sawyer Middle School, the sound of hip hop music can be heard from room 405. Teacher, Robert Strawder is using beats and lyrics as a vehicle to help his students think critically about the world around them.
“Hip hop is the number one communicator with these youth millennials and Gen Zs,” says Strawder.
It’s a course he came up with back in 2017, after being in a gang and spending nearly 2 decades in and out of jail.
“I was on the run for like 18 years. I vowed to God that if I was to beat my case, that I would devote my life to helping kids,” says Strawder.
And so he did. The very next morning he pitched his idea to the Clark County School District, sharing his belief that hip hop could help build a diverse generation of entrepreneurs.
“Hip hop embraces everything, and that’s what this class does. I tell them the real truth about life and I don’t cut corners. And there’s nothing that I read in a book is what I’ve experienced,” says Strawder.
The class made its debut this year and Principal, Brandy Kirkpatrick says the response has been overwhelming.
“Kids don’t necessarily want to take art or band or orchestra, but they’re pumped about hip hop,” says Kirkpatrick.
BUSINESS & DEVELOPMENT
The elective course teaches kids about business, and how to produce, develop and organize their ideas. All with the help of popular artistic expression and a touch of inspiration.
“That’s really what the goal of the class is. It doesn’t matter where you come from, it’s who you want to be, and there’s nothing standing in your way to be able to accomplish those dreams,” says Kirkpatrick.
A lesson with a lifelong impact, all wrapped in a solid beat.
“You can have bad environments surrounding you. You can grow up poor with no food and things like that, and you can become successful. If I just touch one of these kids this year, that’s better than none,” says Strawder.
Strawder is working on implementing the class in schools beyond Clark County.
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