My Class African-American Literature

In tenth grade, I apply to a state-sponsored, residential, gifted and talented school named the Indiana Academy for Math, Science, and Humanities and was accepted. Studying here has been the best decision of my life. For the first time in my educational career, I had teachers who were experts in their fields, peers I related to, and never felt discouraged from taking a risk. Until recently.
This semester, I am taking the class African-American Literature, the most rigorous course I’ve ever taken. Because of the uncomfortable nature of the topics discussed, the class has become intimate, like a family. A recent assignment, Roots of Rap, had three major components; choose a genre of rap, connect the issues plaguing today’s Black Community to slavery, and educate via an open public performance and, by necessity, encompassed complex themes and strong language. The project was a leap out of my comfort zone, but I was ready. Then came an email. …show more content…
We learned the administration told our teacher if we continued the project, vulgar language and sensitive topics must be censored. We appreciated the administration wanted to protect our school from bad press, but we were outraged. Restriction would ruin the academic integrity of the project. After the teacher left, we stayed behind to brainstorm how to get things changed. We elected a small council to speak directly with administrators and created a petition for students. Later that night, the class received an email from our teacher telling us to stop any efforts trying to contest the censorship. We didn’t listen. That night we collected over two hundred signatures, more than two thirds of the