What a great video! Reminds me of my first year teaching, when I taught “The Sound of Silence” as a poem and had 25 kids in the Bronx singing to Simon & Garfunkel.
I don’t even like the original song, but I really love those kids singing it. We need more of this in our schools, not another set of test prep courses.
Friggin Awesome!!!! … If one should look up the definition of “soul” in the dictionary it should say (see this video)!
Thanks Lamar … you made my day brother
Ya know I’ve taught in lots of places and in many of them segregation while not official was the norm. One thing that catches my eye in this video is that it shows one of the great aspects of American society where there is as wide a spectrum of cultures and ethnicities in that single classroom as there are notes in the song.
One thing we as a community owe the military (Fort Polk and the former EAFB) is that we are lucky as a community in that we were forced to get over any racial attitudes we had way earlier than most of the country. We all get to go to school with kids from every part of our community and our communities and neighborhoods themselves are for the most part fully integrated.
This is truly one of the things that puts Alexandria far above other communities in the state. Go to Baton Rouge and you have North Baton Rouge and Scottlandville as the Black areas. Go to Shreveport and you have everything west of I-49, Lafayette has the Northside, New Orleans has New Orleans East and the infamous Ninth Ward, Monroe has West Monroe. Yet go to most any neighborhood in Cenla and you will see white kids playing with black kids playing with asian or hispanic kids without a second thought to it.
Certainly we still have some room for improvement, but aside from a few pockets of mostly all-white or all-black neighborhoods, we are a mosaic of the cultural fabric of our state and that mixture makes us better for it.
CenLamar 
What a great video! Reminds me of my first year teaching, when I taught “The Sound of Silence” as a poem and had 25 kids in the Bronx singing to Simon & Garfunkel.
I don’t even like the original song, but I really love those kids singing it. We need more of this in our schools, not another set of test prep courses.
Best,
Mr. D
http://mrdsneighborhood.com
Friggin Awesome!!!! … If one should look up the definition of “soul” in the dictionary it should say (see this video)!
Thanks Lamar … you made my day brother
Awesome Vid!
Ya know I’ve taught in lots of places and in many of them segregation while not official was the norm. One thing that catches my eye in this video is that it shows one of the great aspects of American society where there is as wide a spectrum of cultures and ethnicities in that single classroom as there are notes in the song.
One thing we as a community owe the military (Fort Polk and the former EAFB) is that we are lucky as a community in that we were forced to get over any racial attitudes we had way earlier than most of the country. We all get to go to school with kids from every part of our community and our communities and neighborhoods themselves are for the most part fully integrated.
This is truly one of the things that puts Alexandria far above other communities in the state. Go to Baton Rouge and you have North Baton Rouge and Scottlandville as the Black areas. Go to Shreveport and you have everything west of I-49, Lafayette has the Northside, New Orleans has New Orleans East and the infamous Ninth Ward, Monroe has West Monroe. Yet go to most any neighborhood in Cenla and you will see white kids playing with black kids playing with asian or hispanic kids without a second thought to it.
Certainly we still have some room for improvement, but aside from a few pockets of mostly all-white or all-black neighborhoods, we are a mosaic of the cultural fabric of our state and that mixture makes us better for it.
Excellent point Drew Ward … something about living on the frost-line … we have all the right chemistry… social, cultural, environmental. Cool Place.
Same kids, 80’s flashback. Love it.