UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For some people, the cultural space occupied by hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, and the academic world, may seem to not even be remotely connected. However, for Jonte “JT” Taylor, associate professor of education (special education) at Penn State, music has been a lifelong passion that he incorporates into his educational philosophy as a means of expanding students’ minds and broadening their cultural perspectives.
“I try to incorporate the use of music as a teaching tool when and where I can,” said Taylor. “In terms of understanding differences — how to advocate for students of all types — sometimes music can help with that.”
Taylor’s love for music is rooted in his early childhood experiences. As an elementary school student in Cleveland growing up in a family of music aficionados, he developed an appreciation for a wide variety of genres, including rock, pop, punk, bluegrass and disco. Hip-hop has “always been a love of mine,” he said, as well as R&B, including Motown and Stax.
“Music has always been some part of my life and existence ever since I was a very young child,” he said.
Taylor began to flesh out his musical proclivities more fully when he moved to Centreville, Mississippi, as a teenager. Throughout middle school and high school, he was actively involved in writing rap and R&B songs as well as producing music. There he was introduced to the musicianship of Black college bands as his high school replicated that style of band performance. “Black college bands are a thing,” Taylor said.
“That’s when I started to think of myself as an artist/producer type of person,” he said.
Despite Taylor’s musical leanings, he claims he never actually thought about pursuing music as a career. Having been raised in a family of educators (his mother, great-grandmother and sister have worked as teachers), he found his calling in special education. Taylor completed a bachelor’s degree in special education at Tuskegee University, a private, historically Black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama.
“Even in college, while I was still dabbling in producing and writing music, I never really considered doing it full-time just because I really love teaching,” he said.
Before joining the Penn State College of Education in 2012, Taylor spent 10 years working in special education in Alabama, Mississippi and Iowa. During that time, he worked with diverse groups of students, including children on the autism spectrum and with emotional/behavioral disorders, teenagers in juvenile detention centers and adult learners with intellectual disabilities — all the while working in music and with musicians. While working at a center for displaced youth in Alabama in 2005, Taylor had an epiphany as to how he could use music as a tool to connect with students that were struggling. While flipping channels on television one evening, he stumbled upon the Disney animated film “The Little Mermaid” and was inspired by its signature song, “Under the Sea.”
“It dawned on me, this song has a lot of prepositional phrases,” said Taylor. “I’m going to use this song to teach prepositional phrases tomorrow.”
While Taylor advocates teachers bringing their personal passions into the classroom, there currently is no class offered by the College of Education that specifically focuses on using music as a pedagogical tool. However, he tries to incorporate music into his curriculum when possible and even has been able to channel pop and hip-hop songs into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning opportunities. As a classroom teacher, Taylor said he was able to use the songs “Diamonds” by Rihanna and “Diamonds of Sierra Leone” by Kanye West and pair them with the Nelly song “Nellyville” to teach lessons about geography and science.