Why ELA Teachers Should Perform Exorcisms in Class: Empowering students to face their trauma and begin their healing journey.
Listen up, ELA educators,
The power of education compels you. The power of education compels you.
The power of education compels you. The power of education compels you.
The power of education compels you. The power of education compels you.
The power of education compels you!
While most students' heads don't spin around unless you remove their cell phones. The words they spit out can be worse than that green stuff. As ELA Teachers, we are in a rare position to use our platform to ease student suffering.
According to the CDC, three out of four students endure (ACES) Adverse Childhood Experiences. Many young people, especially those from marginalized communities, either don't have access or don't trust talk therapy.
So, guess what? Students bring their demons to our classroom. Some traditional teachers may say, "That's not my problem." You are right. However, if we are to educate, in Latin meaning "bring up" or draw out," our students' potential, we better cast out the legion.
The power of education compels me to cast out the legion of fear, anger, and anxiety.
Ironically, I exorcise my students' demons by using what the unenlightened call "devil's music," hip-hop.
Hip-hop functions as the latest genre of music centered on historical, generational, and childhood trauma. Moreover, the music addresses these traumas from a strength-based position. Hip-hop celebrates the survivors and thrivers—those who overcome. I dare say that some artists (NOT DRAKE) are prophets who have the power to cast out demons of the voiceless.
One method they use is naming. I teach my students to "Name their demons."
Famous religious figures, from Jesus to Father Gabriele Amorth, called demons by their name before they cast them out.
Kendrick Lamar performed a live exorcism at the Super Bowl. He named demons possessing America's soul like poverty, poor education systems, and institutional racism.
Why name? Because it gives the victims power over their victimizers.
ELA teachers must craft assignments to help students take their demons out of their headspace. If left to their own devices, our students' traumas will ruminate, and they will NOT be able to learn the information. Students take back control of their emotions by naming their demons or writing about them in a story. When personal demons transform into ink, they lose their power.
I start to think, and then I sink
Into the paper, like I was ink
When I'm writin', I'm trapped in-between the line
I escape, when I finish the rhyme – Rakim "I Got Soul."
Students have the power to ball them up. They have the power to rip them apart by shredding the paper. They even have the power to burn them. JUST DON'T DO IT AT SCHOOL!
These symbolic gestures empower students to realize they do not have to be controlled by their circumstances.
Some may say, "Won't writing about their problems retrigger them."
No. Not if we, as educators, create a safe environment:
Have them write while listening to calming music
Have them practice deep breathing while writing
Have them write their stories in the third person.
My favorite is to have students name their demons and imagine they have the power to cast them out.
Our classrooms can be a safe space. We can teach our students to heal through writing. The writing becomes a gateway to talk therapy. It can help remove stigmas associated with mental health.
I challenged all ELA educators to sprinkle hip-hop therapeutic writing into their lessons. The lyrics may be the holy water you need to get the kids to learn.
When students learn to rewrite their narratives, they remix their minds.
For more hip-hop therapeutic writing tips, dm me or hit me up at DadCypher@gmail.com or DadCypherEdutainment.com.
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