I am perusing lyrics. Sometimes I download songs to make CDs for my classroom. The kids like music but I can’t turn them loose on YouTube. They are a little unclear on the concept of “appropriate.”

I have been scanning lyrics. I had to scratch “Crank That” by Soulja Boy. I wince to read lyrics such as the following:

“Aim to fresh up in this bitch
Watch me shuffle
Watch me jig
Watch me crank my shoulder work
Super man that bitch.”

That song doesn’t belong in the classroom. I had doubts about the line where he super soaked the hoe, too. I certainly can’t include songs that employ the word “nigga” twenty times. I scratched that fellow who was running through his hoes like Draino. I am not going to download his compatriot who had too much rum and brandy and woke up with some strange woman whose face he did not know.

THIS IS THE GOOD LIST. The list created by my other class was almost a total wash-out. I am going to be able to purchase about two-thirds of this set of requests. Still, at the end I wonder, where is the romance? No wonder we had five girls pregnant, all at the same time, in the middle school a few years ago. What are these girls hearing? Songs create societal norms. More people ought to be paying attention to the lyrics of today. I actually like some of Drake’s songs but I wouldn’t want my 12-year-old boys and girls listening to him.

Eduhonesty: I’m getting old, no doubt. I sound like an elder of the tribe, bemoaning my children’s and grandchildren’s musical choices. But I’m not wrong that the music of 2015 has become raw and explicit in a way that denigrates and diminishes romance. Dogs in heat would probably write these lyrics if they used drugs and wrote music. Human beings ought to have progressed beyond a life lived in heat.