Lauryn Hill — Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

The album starts with a skit of a teacher of a class reading the attendance and it turns out that the artist of the album, Lauryn Hill, is absent from the class.

This is the reason why the title is called the “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” as each song is the consequence of her being absent from class thus being not educated. The education in class throughout the skits was on love as the questions that the teacher prompted to the students are any songs or film about love, what are their ideas about love, and “Do you think you’re too young to really love someone?’’

Each song relates to each skit and their purpose stems from Hill being absent in class for those discussions leading her to be miseducated and having to learn these lessons herself.

First, the teacher prompts the students to think about films or music about love. They give out answers such as “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston and the Titanic. Each song on the album talks about love in different ways. For instance, in “To Zion,” Hill instead chooses to use her heart as opposed to using her brain to keep her career in tact, ultimately deciding to keep her child who ends up being the “joy of my world.”

The heart has and will always symbolize love that is also what promotes happiness. Love is where your friends, family, and home are leading to my second example of paying homage to her hometown of New Jersey.

In the song she would vividly describe the cons and pros as the youth stealing was a commonality among them and she was “Watching kids show off the stolen ones;” and Springfield Avenue having the best popsicles with Saturday morning cartoons and Kung-Fu. It is ironic to me how the teacher prompts for the students to speak about music about love when the songs leading up to them or after relate to the same topic.

Second, the students ideas on love are the following: willingness to do everything for that person, the way they act, the way they carry themselves, the way they stand out, and not being phony.

They mean that when you love someone then it is unconditional and it is almost like you are infatuated. Hill experiences through these ideas according to her songs such as “Can’t Take my Eyes Off of You” and “Nothing Even Matters.” She could not take her eyes off of her companion because he stands out to her. “You’re just too good to be true, Can’t take my eyes off of you” means that she is infatuated with him because of the intensity of affection towards her companion.

This connect to the idea of love being how the person acts and carries themselves because of the reiteration of the phrase of infatuation.

Next, “Nothing Even Matters” contains similar content as nothing matters except her companion as what her feature, D’ Angelo, sings that “You’re part of my identity, I sometimes have a tendency to look at you religiously.”

Another song on the album called “ Doo Wop (That Thing)” connects to the idea that love should not be phony. The reason why is because it is about girls and guys only loving each other for “that thing,” or in other words, sex. This means that the love is not genuine, making it phony because it will not last long since reciprocation of it is not equal as one side of the relationship has an agenda for “that thing” and the other has a different agenda, real love.

Third, in the last skit, the teacher asks: “Do you think you’re too young to love someone.” My answer to this “No” because love has no age as what makes you happy has no limitations. We all genuinely love our parents as they reciprocate the same love to us back since they day we are born which indicates that you cannot be too young to love someone.

Although, that is another type of love as romantic love is a whole different thing. As I did in my childhood, I had crushes on girls which means that I was open to loving someone, but at the same time, I did not know what love was.

In the skit, the teacher answers his own questions saying that it’s silly to be in love at a young age as he deems it to be infatuation instead, while the children differentiate from his perspective, saying that there is a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone.

When you love someone, it is eternal, however, when you are in love with someone, you can fall out of love with them or it could be unconditional.

They end the conversation with them pondering on if people even know what love feels like. Media helps portray to people what love feels like and it is what we draw from them to define the true meaning of love.

Songs such as “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and “Tell Him” connect to this theme because she has found the answer to this question. She has found the courage within her to tell her companion that she truly loves him with the help of her journey throughout the album. Experience is the best teacher and she used it to find the true meaning of love to show it to her lover to “Tell him I love him.”

In conclusion, the educational lessons on love is what should be universal as what I think is much needed in the world. Hill had to learn them in the hard way in which she had to go through trail and tribulations in oder to find the strength within her to profess her love.

This what everybody should do to find their true happiness in my opinion. Love is patient so going through the trial and tribulations is a necessity to discover what is love.