Hi guys,

I was at the concert tonight and was a little surprised to hear Prince take a little dig at teachers in the song "Welcome 2 America." It was along the lines of "Teachers only teaching half they know to keep us from getting free" or something of that nature. I don't remember it verbatim. Anyways, I am a teacher and that is the exact opposite of what I try to project. I have to admit it took a little of the joy out of a great performance.

Should I take this personal? The way I made peace with it was that he was referring to how schools have failed to teach culturally relevant history. It upsets me when people (especially Prince, an artist I extremely respect) have these negative misconceptions of the teaching profession.

What do you think?

I think it was just a reference to the cultural bias of the education system towards colonial european history.

Within that bias is the perception that it down plays the true nature of slavery/ slaughters of first peoples and the brutality of building the nation that America has come to be.

I don't think he means that individual teachers are malicious in there methods just a symptom of a wider ignorance

While Prince is an amazing artist, an intellectual he isn't.

Don't take any of his opinions seriously.

eireboy34 said:

While Prince is an amazing artist, an intellectual he isn't.

Don't take any of his opinions seriously.

Now, that's taking it too far.

802 said:

eireboy34 said:

While Prince is an amazing artist, an intellectual he isn't.

Don't take any of his opinions seriously.

Now, that's taking it too far.

Thats a wise advice, and it shouldn't be applied to him alone.

...there are bad examples of every profession, u name it - priests, bad ones; bus drivers, bad ones; footballers, bad ones...but in making a piece of music, story, film whatever, someone being good at their job or things working nicely doesn't have as good a hook or set up conflict as well.

And even if not, whilst I'm not a teacher myself I know that the majority are excellent but have to work within laws and curriculums not set by themselves. Sure there must be stuff you want to teach or impart but it falls outside of the education authorities 'brand'?? Which makes the criticism of the system and not individual teachers.

Unless he pointed directly at you and said '1ststatestereo, you, and you alone are responsible for indoctrinating and misguiding the ute dem.' In which case it was personal.

Respect due to teachers anyway, you only hear when they're being blamed whereas most the time you guys go unthanked and are doing in amazing jobs.

Peace, Mikey

802 said:

eireboy34 said:

While Prince is an amazing artist, an intellectual he isn't.

Don't take any of his opinions seriously.

Now, that's taking it too far.

Is it?

I believe that an artist on stage should just shut up and sing...if you see what I mean

eireboy34 said:

802 said:

Now, that's taking it too far.

Is it?

I believe that an artist on stage should just shut up and sing...if you see what I mean

Without getting too deep, it's true that every time P opens his mouth, it's a tad cringeworthy.

You are actually asking if you should take this personal?

You either do or do not, the fact that you have bothered to start a thread asking that question makes it quite clear that you have taken his comment personally.

TheDigitalGardener said:

You are actually asking if you should take this personal?

You either do or do not, the fact that you have bothered to start a thread asking that question makes it quite clear that you have taken his comment personally.

This is getting too deep for me...I'm going back to "concerts"......

eireboy34 said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

You are actually asking if you should take this personal?

You either do or do not, the fact that you have bothered to start a thread asking that question makes it quite clear that you have taken his comment personally.

This is getting too deep for me...I'm going back to "concerts"......

as much as I agree with Prince that our educational system is deeply flawed and counterproductive to a truly educated culture .. I respect that most teachers have good intentions and are not neccessarily educated enough themselves to realize they are enabling the problem instead of truly contributing to the evolution of our cultures intelligence. The fact tho is that thru media programming, and that includes our educational system, the Parents have gotten extremely lazy, content to work at jobs that feed their own oppression and leave "education" of their children to the institutions. Parents need to step up their home education, throw away the video games, turn off the tv and let their children know everything they have learned, and if all a parent has ever learned is what they got from school, well think about that for a second, acceptance of only one source of information is a huge part of the problem. There are numerous teachers and leaders whom we can all learn from (even if they get assasinated by our government, a lesson unto itself if your brain works at all) the information is out there and you are not gonna get it in school. Ultimately Prince anger toward education is misdirected and should be directed at people who buy into the concept that school will teach your child everything they NEED to know. It definately won't. Come on parents, do the work!

Write him a letter on school stationary (or email)! You might get a response.

Facebook. I think that's one of the biggest obstacle to teaching students these days. Students no longer have time to do assigned readings or even study for tests because they are too preocuppied on Facebook.

eireboy34 said:

802 said:

Now, that's taking it too far.

Is it?

I believe that an artist on stage should just shut up and sing...if you see what I mean

Well if the songs are about social and polical issues I guess according to you they should leave those songs out of the show or refrain from writing about anything important.

Does this sound stupid? Because it is !!!

You also do not know Prince from adam. You have no way of knowing anything about his intelligence.

The education system in the U.S does suck but not all teachers go along to get along some good teachers are out trying to make the system better.

Just more of his sad, woe is me stuff. People stuck in the past tend to stay there.

laurarichardson said:

eireboy34 said:

Is it?

I believe that an artist on stage should just shut up and sing...if you see what I mean

Well if the songs are about social and polical issues I guess according to you they should leave those songs out of the show or refrain from writing about anything important.

Does this sound stupid? Because it is !!!

You also do not know Prince from adam. You have no way of knowing anything about his intelligence.

The education system in the U.S does suck but not all teachers go along to get along some good teachers are out trying to make the system better.

Ah Little Laura! Nice to hear from you!

Prince got sucked up into the propaganda matrix when he donated proceeds of one of the NYC WTA concerts to Jeff Canada. Canada was featured in the union bashing Waiting For Superman movie which got the left wing of America politics into teacher bashing.

The main reason why the educational system in the USA "sucks" is because of the lack of funding and the increase of non educational political interests sticking their noses into policy making decisions. Couple that with the (as Prince said in The Future) the systematic overthrow of the underclass via crack and crystal meth you have a apocolypse occuring in America that will make what the bastards did in Chile look like a Sunday School picnic.

I think Prince's beef is with the schooling system itself, not individual teachers.

Much like how you can object to international policy and war, but are not saying the troops themselves are the douchebags.

well assuming you are part of the LAUSD .. were funding is bad some teachers dont care.. over crowed classes i wouldnt take it personal.. unless well your one of the teachers that dont care and will pass kid even if they still dont know how to spell thier own name by 12 grade... in that case wy would you care?? you would be doing it as a job just to get paid.. education in the states have always been poor, we just to lazy and dont care...

Thanks for the replies. I woke up this morning and it was great to see so much respect and love from you all. Anyways, I'm not upset about it anymore. I think it just took me by surprise. One moment I was cheering Prince's guitar work on "Laydown" and the next moment Prince is dissing me?

It's called freedom of speech. Welcome to America.

metallicjigolo said:

It's called freedom of speech. Welcome to America.

exactly, and just because u say u dont do it doesnt mean that alot of teachers dont......so no u should not b upset, get over it

802 said:

eireboy34 said:

While Prince is an amazing artist, an intellectual he isn't.

Don't take any of his opinions seriously.

Now, that's taking it too far.

agreed....

eireboy34 said:

802 said:

Now, that's taking it too far.

Is it?

I believe that an artist on stage should just shut up and sing...if you see what I mean

really now?

What artist worth his/her salt does that? The best artist give social commentary... without it there would be no Prince

As for the original poster... look do you agree with everything Prince says? Do you feel like he was addressing your personally? Let it roll off you back and try not to look too deeply into it.

From what I am hearing those shows in LA have been spectacular focus on the positive experience of that

NouveauDance said:

I think Prince's beef is with the schooling system itself, not individual teachers.

Much like how you can object to international policy and war, but are not saying the troops themselves are the douchebags.

but why does this have to be explained?

strmn said:

Facebook. I think that's one of the biggest obstacle to teaching students these days. Students no longer have time to do assigned readings or even study for tests because they are too preocuppied on Facebook.

As a student, that's a huge misconception. Compare the amount of information students were required to learn even 10 years ago to the information we are expected to learn now. Though teenagers and adults alike may spend a considerable amount of time on Facebook, that's hardly the reason why they "no longer have time to do assigned readings/study for tests". You can actively participate in both, and most students do.

chopingard said:

I think it was just a reference to the cultural bias of the education system towards colonial european history.

Within that bias is the perception that it down plays the true nature of slavery/ slaughters of first peoples and the brutality of building the nation that America has come to be.

I don't think he means that individual teachers are malicious in there methods just a symptom of a wider ignorance

welcome 2 america

welcome 2 america

welcome 2 america where u can get hired get fired and get 7 million dollars

somebody is watching u

welcome 2 america

welcome 2 america

we still got a lot 2 learn about race relations if ur in the mood 4 drama

inbetween 911 and hurricane katrina and the election of barack obama

somebody's watching u

big brother is still in effect and if ur still getting hassled at the airport

just remember who u elected

welcome 2 america

welcome 2 america

watching u watching me where the teachers only tell u half of what they know

just 2 not keep u free

now they got u wanting 2 drink some tea who me?

the past 7 presidents b4 george washington making history

i don't care what sly said everybody ain't a star

ain't no one on rolling stone cover

the big star is dead y'all

[Edited 5/15/11 20:17pm]

Well...if you're really a Prince fan, then you already know that Prince says plenty of shit that he does not mean.

Brush it off and keep moving! Before too long, he'll find a financially feasible way for him to make some grandiose statement...where he's singing the praises of teachers.

Prince hasnt been in a public school for a about 30 years now what the fuck does know about what teachers do in the classroom.

come on people he says lame stuff just like the rest of us.