I started teaching 8th grade history in 2016, which was right in the middle of peak Hamilton-mania. It was a serious boon for a new middle school teacher. Literally a modern, brilliant musical hook for my students who would have otherwise no idea who Hamilton or many other of the founding fathers were.

So if you know me now, you might be surprised to find out that I definitely knew nothing about Broadway or musicals, or even (if you can believe it) Hamilton before becoming a teacher. My own introduction to Hamilton the Musical came when someone made me listen to “Cabinet Battle #1”. It was hilarious and blew me away. I quickly discovered the rest of the songs, and piecemeal learned the story of Hamilton and Lin Manuel Miranda. Imagine my pleasure at realizing that I was going to be teaching this period of American history in my classroom!

Broadway! I’ve also had quite a journey discovering just how much I love musicals over the past through years… yeah I basically grew up in a cultural desert.

That said, being a middle school teacher comes with some challenges where Hamilton is concerned:

First, there’s a lot of bad words in the play! Even the first line of “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..” has 2 words that I either have to censor or hope that parents won’t care about! While both of those words are fairly mild, Hamilton plays with the full range of English vulgarity throughout the play. It leads to quality rhythms and rhymes, but some difficult songs to analyze in class.

Secondly, there’s the adult themes in the play. Hercules Mulligan starts us off with a fun quip about daughters and horses that does not go over 8th graders heads. Additionally, a key part of the story line is Hamilton’s infidelity, which makes for great songs like “Hurricane” but isn’t super appropriate for middle schoolers.

Finally, it’s very clearly written for a high school/adult audience. The writing has a lot of large vocabulary words, and even when the show invites students, they only invite high school students / classes to attend. It’s completely understandable, but very regrettable when you teaching students right at the cusp of that limit. (I basically begged them to invite my class when they toured San Diego… but got no response).

With all of those in mind, let me talk about some of the ways I have integrated Hamilton the Musical into my lesson plans throughout the last few years.

With a little bit of editing a lot of the songs can be used as ‘openers’ to already existing lesson plans. First, not every song actually has inappropriate language in it, (e.g. One Last Time), and with some clever youtube-pausing and unpausing, some of the other words can be avoided as well… When I have more free time, I can edit them fully, but simply marking the locations of bad language has worked well for me in the past. “Not throwing away my shot” is a really important theme of the play, and one that I think is very appropriate for middle schoolers to explore. We use this during our homeroom time. What does it mean not to waste your ‘one shot’ in life? It’s a pretty wholesome and inspiring message that works for both students and teachers! Another important topic that Hamilton supports is a discussion of women and minorities in the past / present. Hamilton the Musical is really cool for casting these otherwise very mainstream figures as minorities which sets up some fantastic class discussions. I love that my students can have modern role models of all types. In the play itself, Lin Manuel Miranda does some work writing about the perspectives of women during the time period. This is most obviously seen in the Schuyler Sister’s songs. Angelica and Eliza are both really respectable characters. Finally, don’t be afraid to try literally just performing the songs from the play as a class. Once again, some songs may take some editing, but some of the best experiences of my teacher-life have been seeing my middle schoolers perform selections from Hamilton. A lot of them love Hamilton even before they enter my classroom, and I usually manage to convert the rest of them throughout the year. I’ve had students practice and perform “Alexander Hamilton”, “My Shot”, and “Schuyler Sisters” with great success.

So there you have it! Hopefully I’ll discover more uses for the songs as my journey as a teacher continues. I’m very open to any suggestions if you have any.

Mostly I’m just hoping that Hamilton keeps its relevancy for a few more generations of students. A little bit I worry that there will be a steadily tapering timer of Hamilton interest until I reach some year of students where none of them have heard it before entering my classroom. (Although I guess the music is timeless enough that the students will enjoy it anyways once I get them to listen to it). One or another, I’ll have to make them love it as much as I do.

Oh yeah, I should add the #5 way that I’ve used Hamilton: to blast in the car on the way to school to get charged for the day. There’s no better way for a teacher to be ready for your endless days of work than to blast “Non-Stop”!