Tupac Shakur (1971-1996) was an American rapper and actor known for his unyielding spirit, musical talent, and unmistakable voice. He is often cited as an influence for several rappers, even today. But he was also an inspiration in other fields of work, including my own. Since today is his birthday, I wanted to write a blog about his impact on me to pay tribute to him.
I’ve been a teacher for two years. I did my first year at the elementary school level and my most recent at a middle school, where I’m still teaching today. Unlike many of my colleagues, I am alternatively certified. This means I didn’t major in education or do student teaching to achieve my position. I completed a program and got my certification after finishing a paid internship, which was at the aforementioned elementary school. I graduated college in 2017 with a degree in political science, and upon receiving my degree, I found myself lost after an internship fell through. I had not prepared for the workplace during my time in school, so I was unemployed for a while before I embarked on the tantalizing quest of finding the right job for me. Indeed, I was a “job-hopper” for several years. Being a teacher was something I only thought about in passing throughout my life. As a kid, I remember thinking about how cool it would be to have my own desk and how awesome it would be to decorate my room with video game characters and eat McDonald’s for lunch instead of the usual apocryphal cafeteria food. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in education. It took a gentle nudge from my mother, and, of all things, an interview I saw featuring my favorite rapper of all time, Tupac Shakur, or 2Pac for short.
In 1991, during an interview promoting his debut album 2Pacalypse Now, 2Pac discussed several topics relating to the themes of the album and the culture at the time. He talked about issues facing Black America and how he hoped his music would inspire the youth to take action. The interview in its entirety was very moving and a pertinent example of 2Pac’s immortal spirit. I normally can’t sit and watch a YouTube video for more than ten minutes, but I found myself unable to click away from this forty minute interview. My internet friends have a term for something of value they find online. It could be an article, a video, an image, a meme, a review, anything. That term is “gold.” And there was a lot of “gold,” in its purest form, in this interview. But to keep this blog from being a spicy thirty-page dissertation, I’m only going to talk about the parts I think are relevant to me as a teacher.
At about thirteen minutes in, 2Pac began talking about the influence he had over the youth and how the “whole world” had its ears to what he had to say because of said influence. His powerful words resonated not only with black youth, but white and Hispanic youth as well. When a movement captures young people and crosses boundaries in doing so, the older generation becomes compelled to stop and listen to that movement’s demands. You might be asking, “how is this relevant to deciding to become a teacher?” This snippet of the interview is only part of my motivation (I will go into what I think is the most important quote from the interview later on), but I can answer this now.
When I took my job as a middle school reading teacher, the principal remarked that I would be particularly effective as a young black man. I would be able to reach children, who didn’t have male role models that resembled me, and teach them about the wonders of reading and writing and the possibilities that come with understanding them. I always look back to my own youth and remember how few black men were in education. As a child, a black man teaching ways to make reading an exciting part of anyone’s life was nary an image I created in my head whenever I walked into my language arts classes. So when my principal told me the effect I would have, I felt overwhelmed at my newfound “power” at first. And it took me a little while into the school year to truly embrace that responsibility. The moment I realized I could influence the youth and, in effect, influence the next generation, I decided that this wouldn’t just be a “job” that I did. I purchased literature on understanding how the reading brain works, classroom management, and building connections, in addition to asking for guidance from my peers. I was thinking about the imaginary reigns that had been “handed” to me. I was thinking about what 2Pac was saying.
Another quote about reaching the youth that struck me was when 2Pac said, “…the young kids, they’ll go out of their way to talk to you. Even when I meet them in a bad mood they always [ask], ‘How ya doin’?’ ’cause they really are interested in what you have to say and they know what I’m talkin’ about, and I love that.” At this point in the interview, I realized how effective 2Pac would have been as a teacher or a professor. I’ve actually had a few scenarios like this play out as he described. Teaching is often very frustrating and stressful, and I can’t always keep my eyebrows up and a smile on my face. Even in those moments, some of my students would still tell me about a tomato they grew, or a trip they took, where they are in a book, or even take notice of my emotions and ask about how my day is going. I had touched their hearts. I had given them power.
If you observe any Teacher of the Year at your school, especially at the middle or high school level, you’ll notice how difficult it is to get in a word with them after hours because their classrooms are always occupied with students who want to give them well wishes, life updates, academic updates, or et cetera. They basically become an amalgamation of third parents and celebrities! That’s because these teachers understood what 2Pac understood, even if they had never listened to a single one of his songs. And that was that the youth are our future and need someone to look up to to let them know that they have more power than they believe. This is why effective teachers and their students thrive. This is why 2Pac, even today, nearly 27 years after his untimely passing, has the most loyal fans in the world and his albums are still breaking records.
Let’s dial it back a little. I can picture you wondering (see what I did there?), “Okay, that’s cool, but how did it BEGIN? What was the SPARK?” The part in the interview that really spurred me into action was at around nineteen minutes and forty seconds in. Here, 2Pac says promptly that “we don’t need no more rappers, we don’t need no more basketball players, no more football players; we need more thinkers, we need more scientists, y’know we need more managers, we need more mathematicians, we need more teachers, we need more people who care; you know what I’m saying, we need more women, mothers, fathers, we need more of that; we don’t need anymore entertainers.” He immediately clarifies, in light of the irony of being an entertainer himself, by saying that the professions outside of entertainment that he mentioned are necessary for society to flourish.
To me, it seems like anyone who aspires to get into sports or entertainment probably would not get disdain from 2Pac then or now, because he understood that those individuals have their place. However, he also knew that they could only do so much for society as a whole. To pull one of many examples out of a hat, LeBron James opening and funding a school in Ohio is a remarkable instance of the kind of philanthropy 2Pac would be proud of, but it can’t be relied on to really fix education in America. It’s a start, but the big picture is that it really does take a village. After hearing 2Pac speak these words, and with the assurance of a mother with an iron intuition and an accuracy rate that would make a dragonfly jealous, I decided to enter the world of education. This year, a student told me that I was like their “second dad,” so I know I’m making progress so far!
Tupac Shakur was truly a one-of-a-kind musician. We may never see another rapper—hell, another person—like him in our lifetimes. I wrote this blog to give props to a man whose music got me through my hardest days both as a teacher and as a participant in this game of life. On what would be his 52nd birthday, let us all acknowledge his lasting contributions to the world of music and undying influence on our hearts and minds. Happy Birthday, ‘Pac!
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