A rap concert that brings to light social issues seems a bit unrealistic but the students of Gateway College rewrote history when they organized "Whimsical" a rap music concert among the grades 7 and 8 as a part of their Citizenship Studies Programme.

"Whimsical" was no ordinary rap concert but a concert with a cause where the young students used their curriculum as the basis to express their views on citizenship and social issues such as bullying, equal rights, old age, democracy and globalization.

The headmaster of Gateway College Somabandu Kodikara, the mastermind behind "Whimsical" and its success, says that rap was used as a medium to connect with the students as it was a genre that appealed to the younger generation who were more attuned to this form of expression.

"Whimsical in literary terms means the excessive use of words, which is a non complimentary description of rap. Though rap is considered verbose and is unappreciated in literature, the rap and hip hop culture have become influential mediums of expression among teenagers. This was one of the reasons why we picked rap to get the message of citizenship across. The lyrics are from the student's curriculum and the students are actually rapping their subject content." he elaborated.

Interestingly, the lyrics for the rap songs were originals written by the children themselves based on themes they learnt during their citizenship programme. He further added "this innovative approach is all about using the right brain, a side that does all the fun things for learning activities. This method aids in absorbing the content faster, increases memory power and the power to recall. Through "Whimsical" the students get an opportunity to enjoy themselves and learn something fruitful. Not only is it a fun medium of learning it is also a potent medium of expression. I hope this will evolve as a new education tool and I'm also hoping to experiment with this mechanism of teaching/ learning with other subjects in order to make it popular."

Over one hundred students from grades 7 and 8 took part in the concert while 8 groups presented rap songs which focused on themes such as King Henry VIII, Assertive discipline, Equity, War and Peace, Freedom, Discrimination, Tsunami etc.

Gateway College is the first school in the country to experiment with an educational tool of this nature.