Dear Mr. Vedder, My name is Maryland Teacher. I'm a Maryland
English Teacher. On behalf of my three 8th grade classes, we
have a story to share. For the past three and a half years, I
have included the lyrics to your song "Black" as part of my
Journey Through Genres unit. Initially, I introduce "Black" as a
poem. In the end of the Journeys Through Genres unit, I ask the
kids if they want to hear "Black" being "read," and I play your
song. They always seem stunned when they realize that a song is
really nothing more than poetry married to rhythm. I must admit
that teaching "Black" is one of the highlights of my year, and
the kids love it, too. My students actually whined when I took
the lyrics back from them (too much to go over during a 45
minute block of time). They wanted to know how the "poem" ended:
I only let them examine the song stanza by stanza, and we only
got through the first two stanzas during the first day. Never
before have I seen them so hungry for more. One promising young
student even asked f