It was reported two weeks ago that a middle school teacher from a Boynton Beach, FL charter school was suspended after distributing uncensored Lil Wayne lyrics to his students. The sharing of the lyrics, from the Wayne song “Six Foot Seven Foot,” was explained by the school’s headmaster as the teacher trying to be creative in reaching his students. Of course, parents were shocked and outraged by the exercise. During his recent appearance on ESPN’s First Take, Lil Wayne was asked about the incident and shared his perspective on the teacher’s judgment.
“I’d never be embarrassed by anything I say because I say it and I mean it,” Wayne said in the interview. “But I don’t think that you should be trying to teach it in any way to kids because I don’t record it and say it for kids to listen to it but they will hear it. It’s a difference between hearing and listening. Not that it’s okay for them to hear it but if they hear it, then so be it. They hear it. But when you’re trying to teach them to listen to it, that’s a difference and I don’t try to teach them that. I do what I do and I don’t think that’d be right to try to teach kids about what I’m saying.”
After the teacher’s suspension, headmaster Wayne Owens issued a statement.
“The lesson was for students to learn to identify literary devices. The teacher had already introduced Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare,” Owens said. “Students were having difficulty grasping the concepts of literary devices such as: pun, simile, metaphor, so the teacher used colloquial material. This material did not meet the school’s standards and was not approved. The teacher recognizes that it was totally inappropriate for a school assignment.”
