And for the students that completed all of those assignments, I hope they learned enough to go into the world spreading their knowledge. A lot of people don't have clear facts or multiple perspectives on the situations of policing and prisons in America, and I want my students to be activists by spreading that knowledge.
But I also wish that we could spend more time analyzing the themes in Lemonade. Beyonce isn't only talking about infidelity (being cheated on). She's also talking about how sexism and racism affect black women in ways that go back hundreds of years, and how their husbands, boyfriends, and even fathers hurt them in similar ways. She's talking about how black women are often left alive to suffer the impacts of harms in the black community. She's talking about how black women develop traditions and behaviors to cope and deal with this pain, and sometimes they aren't helpful. She's talking about pain in such a deep way that I want my students to spend more time connecting with it. And I think that ten days (20 hours) isn't enough time. If this were a regular school year class, these 20 hours would cover about 25 days of class, 5 weeks. And I'm not sure than 5 weeks of school would be enough to deal with all the themes, images, and amazing lyrics in Lemonade (including the poetry of Warsan Shire, who is a genius).
What do you think students? Was it valuable to deal with policing/prisons AND Lemonade? Or should we have only focussed on one or the other? Explain why and be specific about your opinions.