A white man in his 30s facing a room mostly filled with black youngsters in their teens. An English teacher established in his career preaching to students who barely know their next step.
True harmony of success seemed distant amidst the discord of cultural differences. Yet teacher Casey Wood aimed to hit the right note and shatter barriers at E.C. Glass High School. So he broke the glass. But In the words of a now-published group, “You don’t even know what that means” yet. No worries, you are about to find out.
Wood found nothing wrong with the English lectures or materials. The class resembled what anyone would expect at a typical high school, but he wanted more. Thus, he decided to fashion another class.
Now when people walk down the first-floor halls of the school resting near the heart of Lynchburg, they may hear a zestful genre of music from room W108, meshing with rhythmic speech and intricate wordplay, alluding to budding art and young professionals. These students learn the five pillars of hip-hop — rapping, DJing, breakdancing, visual arts, and knowledge — as they study figurative language through song lyrics and garner the history of hip-hop and its effects on humanity. Young minds process the subjects of English, history, and music through the lens of hip-hop in the room.
The class rings to the name of “Exploring Language and Culture through Hip-Hop.” The conception of the course began with what Wood coined “Freestyle Friday” in his English class. Having first gotten into hip-hop himself during his high school days and tuning along to the beats of rappers such as the duo OutKast and solo artist Eminem, the idea came naturally.
“It was just a fun thing where my students would take their vocabulary words, and if they wrote them in a rap and performed it for the class on Fridays, they would get extra credit on their vocabulary test,” Wood said.
The English teacher recalled School Administrator Rob Quel observing this performance during one of those Fridays. He informed Wood that leadership sought to offer new electives the following year and suggested a class solely woven around hip-hop.
“My principal helped that idea take root, and I wrote up the course shortly after that, and we offered it for the first time in the 2017-18 school year.”
That year, Quel died at the age of 51, leaving a family, community, and school in mourning. In a way, Wood now dedicates the course to him — a session that now breathes new life into the students who attend, embracing the class with excitement.
Building the class failed to prove easy, nor did Wood expect such a journey as days were tunneled into learning all the necessary content. Not having much existing materials to follow challenged Wood, but also sparked his creative mind.
“I don’t know that there are any that exist that are quite like the one that I teach,” Wood said. “For me, the biggest challenge was just developing the curriculum and being able to present that in an effective and genuine way in a class where I’m a white man and I’m teaching students who are mostly black.”
Despite the differences, Wood sees himself in his students — young people who are scratching and clawing to find themselves, kids trying to discover their identity like a young Wood once struggled to achieve.
That boy who grew up in Bedford became an English major at James Madison University, a drumline instructor at E.C. Glass High School, and then, later, an English teacher the community knows and loves.
Wood now helps his students mold themselves. Thanks to support from businesses and the community, especially from the Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation, Wood’s class flourished and assistance allowed the school to purchase a recording studio about five years after its creation. The class became so popular that the school even incorporated an advanced hip-hop course in which students focus solely on writing and recording music and podcasts. All these students possess an outlet for their emotions and the ability to build confidence in skills such as public speaking. Some have gone on to make music professionally.
In fact, Wood’s class formed the group BTG and published an album in June of 2024 called “Break The Glass: Volume 1,” the group’s namesake, and conducted live performances. People can give the album a listen on various music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Pandora, and Amazon Music.
What began as “Freestyle Friday” evolved into a boundary-breaking course at E.C. Glass High School, engaging students with the English language and connecting them to their identities. In the end, Casey Wood discovered the right tune and orchestrated a melody that can be heard in Lynchburg and beyond. GN
