This is a song that discovered me in 2016 that to me speaks to the times of today. I think it should be in the curriculum of every American school. It also reminds me of a time pop music was in my curriculum.

In the 8th grade, I was given an assignment to take a folk song and analyze the lyrics and then present it.  While others were choosing Woody Guthrie toons and other classicAmericanaa, I chose Hurricane by Bob Dylan. I would love to say that the language of opression and wrongful inprisonment spoke to me (and it likely did on a subconscious level), I picked it because of it being featured in Dazed and Confused, my favorite movie at the time. I brought in the lyrics to get approved after listening to the song over and over writing them down. This was before you could Google lyrics. It was before you could Google. I remember the teacher calling me up and specifically pointing to the line “Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down” and asking me “what that word is?”, to which I happily replied “Shit”.

A few weeks later I was transferred out of the normal English class and into a special ed English class. The teacher had enough of me. I could dovetail into failings of the American education system or how language is only given power when we choose to give it that power. But I would rather encourage you to go listen to American Privilege.