Rahm Emanuel teaches AP class; treated to student rap
By Fran Spielman City Hall Reporterfspielman@suntimes.com February 25, 2011 4:02PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
Three days after winning a grueling campaign, most politicians would be on a beach somewhere sipping a pina colada.
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel was teaching a high school AP government class — and he vowed to do more of the same after taking office.
On Friday, Emanuel arrived at Ralph Ellison School in Auburn-Gresham, one of 15 Chicago International Charter Schools, to keep a promise he made to a teacher during his campaign.
Before honoring the promise to teacher Lindsey Spears, Emanuel was treated to a student-written-and-performed hip-hop rap that brought some of the mayor-elect’s campaign rhetoric to life.
In a commercial, Emanuel had talked about the vacant look he saw in the eyes of too many hopeless kids. In his victory speech, he talked about not having “won anything” until kids going to school are concerned about their studies — not their safety.
The rap included both themes.
Jonathon Grayer, 15, said he wrote the rap to describe “what we’re going through, the reality of our lives, how it really is in almost every home. . . .It’s hard to be protected. It’s just hard living in Chicago.”
Kevin Thomas, 18, added, “This is what we come from. This is our reality. It’s filled with hard times, but we’ve got that hope. . . . That’s what keeps us moving.”
Emanuel was clearly moved by the rap, written for an after-school program and now headed for a competition.
“The kids clearly have internalized the notion of education and its value. That gave me hope. . . . At the same time, children are facing a reality today where they are thinking of their safety and not their studies,” Emanuel said.
“Part of the after-school program is a way for them artistically and intellectually to give a voice to two competing emotions. . . . So I leave optimistic. They’re gonna now go compete. They’re gonna show what their art form can achieve. . . . I’m glad they’ve found a way to express their own sense of — I don’t want to use the word desperation, [but] the reality they have to face.”
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