Wyclef stops in Trenton to talk with music students
TRENTON >> People know Wyclef Jean can rap and sing. But probably no one expected the Grammy-winning artist to break out his exercise moves during a visit to Foundation Academy Elementary School in Trenton on Tuesday afternoon.
“You all don’t got to move, I’m from the hood,” Jean said before he did a walking handstand down the center aisle of the classroom with his red sneakers in the air. “I like working out and I like gymnastics.”
Jean, a third of the nowdisbanded Fugees, spent the day at the school teaching the students life lessons and playing music.
The Haitian-born artist described his childhood growing up as the son of a preacher.
“My daddy kicked me out of church because he was a preacher and he wanted me to do church music,” Jean said before breaking into a quick snippet of “Amazing Grace.” “Me, I wanted to rap.”
Jean, 46, like many children in Trenton, grew up in a rough neighborhood.
“They were doing some bad stuff when I was coming up,” Jean said. “I wasn’t no goody-two-shoes.”
But the star provided advice for the students to surround themselves with positive people.
“I still believe in the community,” said Jean, who attempted to run for president of Haiti but was ruled ineligible. “Sometimes we come from different places and it look like we don’t have no way out. And I still think that there is still positive people around.”
He also told the fourth and fifth grade students if they feel any sort of “negative vibe or energy” from someone to report that person to the authorities.
“This is your future,” said Jean, who was wearing a hat that read “I Got Bars.” “Don’t ever let anyone intimidate y’all.”
Before he left the classroom, Jean happily fulfilled a young girl’s request to play a song.
Before breaking into his cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry,” Jean asked students to “pick a word” and he would then freestyle.
“School” was thrown out by one student.
“You got to stay in school. Trust me homie when you grow up you don’t want to be a fool. You want to get it right in music class. After this conference, you want to pass,” the New Jersey resident rapped.
Jean’s backing band was the school’s music teachers who joined in on drums, piano, bass and strings.
Graig Weiss, CEO of Foundation Academies, said Jean learned of the charter school by word of mouth and social media.
“Wyclef heard about us and fell in love with what our kids were doing here,” Weiss proudly said Tuesday. “It’s amazing to see a guy like Wyclef be so generous with his time and really giving back to the kids.”
Next year, Foundation will serve all grades K-12. The charter school, which operates a K-8 location and a 9-12 high school, will serve 1,000 city students next year, with 1,000 more will be on the waiting list to be enrolled in the school that was founded in 2007, Weiss said.
“Every single one of our kids plays a string instrument in school,” the CEO touted. “I think it’s just parents wanting a great education for their kids. We set really high expectations for the kids and hold them to those expectations. We see it time and time again — when you set high expectations for kids, they absolutely rise to the occasion.”
Charter schools have received criticism from the public school district for pulling from their funding, causing shortfalls. The public school leaders also allege charter school send underachieving children back to the public schools.
“We really closely track our attrition rates to make sure that we’re not losing our kids back to the Trenton district, because that’s not fair to the Trenton district,” Weiss said. “For us, it’s about making sure that our kids get a great education. We want the kids all over Trenton to get a great education, not just at Foundation. This definitely isn’t a competition because us and the district.”
Citing statistics, the school’s CEO said re-enrollment for students is at 89 percent. He said a vast majority for the 11-percent loss is that students move. New Jersey doesn’t track attrition rates, Weiss said, but said Foundation’s attrition rate is 3 percent higher than New York City.
Despite the school’s success, which also includes 100 percent of this year’s graduating students being accepted into four-year colleges, Foundation’s CEO is content with the current size of the institution.
“It’s difficult to get teachers to commit to longer school year and day,” Weiss said. “We don’t have any big plans for expansion at the current time.”