Teaching Critical Thinking? Start with Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Performance

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance gave America the discussion starter it needs right now, and it reminded many educators of the best ingredients for a lesson plan. Rich in storytelling, symbolism, metaphor, and social commentary, this show was a masterclass in critical thinking that belongs in your classroom. 

“I’m always willing to learn."

"I like trying new things."

"We’re more alike than different.” 

These are ideas people have been taught to say. But words like “willing” and “trying” and “alike” walk out the door when words like “critical” and “thinking” and “diversity” and “inclusion” enter the room. 

We don’t really want the change we say we want in schools and society. We don’t really want to learn about anything different. 

The rush to social media to declare outrage about Lamar’s performance highlights that people want sameness. They want mainstream. They want the status quo.

Before I go further, let me first say that we don’t all have to love hip hop or R&B. Love whatever music you love. The genre is merely a medium for the message. However, what is also true is that we should see more than our own experiences reflected in the media we consume. There could be a lesson in the very things we avoid.

Let’s face it. American education has taught people of all cultures that whiteness is the center and that everything else is a tangent, a mere scribble in the margins or footnotes of textbooks and articles.

When that is our primary perspective, anything other than that is just... other. Therefore, an entire stage of Black people performing, singing lyrics that aren’t easily understood, might be frustrating. In fact, some conservative white folks suddenly cried out for subtitles because they couldn't understand the lyrics or lamented the fact that not a single white person appeared on the stage. This from the people who despise diversity, equity, and inclusion. Suprise, surprise!

The social media commentary teases one question:

“Why are you on the Super Bowl stage and not in the margins where you belong?”

America, here is your discussion question: 

In what ways does centering my own experiences and preferences prevent me from learning about and valuing others’ experiences and the world around me? 

That’s a great discussion for every classroom as well. After a discussion, my students always had to reflect.

“Has my perspective about this topic shifted in any way? If so, what classmate or new learning led to my shift?”

Current education legislation bans books and tells teachers not to prioritize diverse voices, equity, or inclusion when those things help children develop a more well-rounded perspective of the world.

Diversity is not lower in quality. Equity does not cost anything to the masses. Inclusion does not muffle the voices of those who have always been in the room. 

I went to Facebook to jot a post about my analysis of the halftime show and brainstormed how I would use it in my classroom.. To my surprise, many people appreciated the analysis and ideas. 

Teachers, here is what that performance means for our lessons:

Never leave critical thinking out of your lessons. It should always drive our teaching. Students need to get comfortable with learning about things outside of themselves. They need to talk to each other. They need to be able to question what they are learning and connect it to the society they live in. 

Here Are 5 Things Teachers Can Try:

• Show a portion of the halftime performance on mute to allow students to analyze what they see visually.
  
  
• Play Gil Scott-Heron’s “Revolution will not be Televised” and ask students to compare that with Kendrick Lamar’s declaration that the “The revolution is about to be televised.”
  
  
• Ask students about the costumes and dancing. What is the symbolism of Black dancers bending over in the shape of an American flag?
  
  
• What is the extended metaphor of “the game” during the performance, and how could that relate to the experiences of Black people in America?
  
  
• Have students think about the historical connection to embedding messages in plain sight. See “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which was sometimes sung by enslaved Africans to signal that an escape was imminent. Consider also Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, which was written in tiny print on the margins of the newspaper and other tiny scraps of paper. He wasn’t allowed a notepad, so he got the message out of the jail by making it look like he was scribbling. 
  
  
• Bonus: What to read after Kendrick Lamar's halftime show. 

Decoding and analyzing music, literature, and art at all grade levels ensures schools help develop open-minded citizens who can think critically. 

It is quite curious that people can go to a museum and see a splatter painting and think, “It must be profound and beautiful because I don’t understand it.” That same courtesy has never been extended to Blackness, to other people of color, or to people who speak different languages. There, the reverse is true: “I don’t understand it, so it can’t be profound or beautiful.” 

Black people know how to learn from someone else’s perspective. That is what we have always been forced to do. It’s a skill that American society should also try to learn. The best teachers know to ask, “What voices are missing from my lesson?” Legislators just need to stay out of the way and allow teachers to include those voices.

Americans leave beauty unappreciated, conversations avoided, and cultures dismissed because there is a fear that the margins might move toward the center. 

But the center is not the only place where the truth lives. It also lives in the revolution. And it was televised. It came off the margins of the paper and was right there in song, imploring us to reflect.