Music

Music is imperative because it allows people to unite under one idea. For instance, Sarah Dessen says, “Music is a great uniter. An incredible for something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common." This tells us that everywhere you go, you will see very diverse people with unique ideas. However, music, especially in schools, helps people connect in ways they didn't know possible. This leads to diversity as well as unity, and can also stimulate a better educational environment for the students. Thus, Dessen emphasizes the idea of unity through music that will allow the world to learn through music's importance. 

"Music can change the world because it can change people."

-Bono

"Music is the literature of the heart; it commences when speech ends."

-Alphonse de Lamartine

"We listen to great music and know that all our joys and sorrows are part of something beyond our comprehension - and

so indefinitely valuable."

-Jesse O'Neill

"High school music students have been shown to hold higher grade point averages (GPA) than non-musicians in the same school."

-National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988

Slam

Taylor Mali is a poet which I chose for this, assignment. His poem called "What Teachers Make" really interested me and I questioned a lot of things he mentioned. It is important to understand that teachers play a dramatic role in the future generations, since they can be held some-what responsible for the outcomes the future brings. Teachers should teach students information that will make them successful in life, no matter what it is. In can involve arts, english, mathematics or whatever, but it is a teacher's responsibility to push the students towards success. Today, there a very few teachers like this, because most of them have no idea what they are doing, and should not be teachers. This causes future problems in society, because students are not being taught anything! Mali states this info when he says, "A teacher's job is question, criticize, apologize..." (Mali). This helps emphasize the fact that a teacher plays an important role in society, and if they aren't teaching, they should quit because they are only harming society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xuFnP5N2uA

The next poet I chose was Andrea Gibson and her poem called "Blue Blanket". This poem was very interesting to me because of the words she chose throughout most of her poem. It speaks about the horrible things happening to women to this day, especially when it comes to rape. My favorite line is “She knows how much control is worth, knows what a woman can lose when her power to move is taken away,"(Gibson). This shows that women feel powerless when it comes to rape, and has nothing to do with sex, but control. In society today, not many people raze how this issue is harming women as well as children who have to deal with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cEc3aQOP-o

The last poet I chose is Willie Perdomo and his work called "Crazy Bunch Barbecue". I enjoyed this poem because it has more of a personal feeling to it. Willie speaks of a summer he spent back in 1999, and speaks from his experiences. What he smelled, saw, heard and felt all seemed surreal, which made me like it even more. The overall tone of the poem is soothing and relaxing, even when it speaks of those no longer here. "This is definitely for the brothers who ain't here," (Perdomo). In the verse, there is a shift, where he no longer speaks of the happy times, but the people who are no longer with him and are not able to celebrate with him. This poem is very creative and unique, which is why I enjoyed it very much.