<p>A young student stands in the front of my classroom ready to perform. The students have just turned in their journals which contain four types of entries: literary, current events, composition, and creative. Students must present one of the entries to the class and this young man chooses to present his creative entry. This particular student is one of the really good kids; polite, eager to learn and participate, well-spoken, and hard-working. To enhance his performance, he asks the class for a beat. They all concede and begin to pound the table in a rhythm I have heard thousands of times before: in my class, in movies, driving down the street, on the radio I sometimes let my children listen to. It is a primal beat, the most basic one can imagine.</p>