Poetry on the down low

When I lived in NYC, it always made my day when I found a new poem
displayed in the subway car. Sitting alongside advertisements for
English lesson and zit removal, it was a little pick me up amongst a
sea of riotous ads. How's that for poetic? I never claimed to be good.

The other day, I forgot to erase a poem I'd written on the board for
one of my AP classes. A couple of sophomores mentioned it - one had
seen it before; another asked what it meant... and suddenly an idea
was born. If I post a short poem on the board and just never mention
it, all of my students will assume it's meant for another class.
They'll still read it, thinking it may be important, and get a little
poetry in their lives.

It's an idea anyhow.

Comments

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While purusing the Sunday paper, I came across an article describing some local candidate forum held over the weekend. Apprently they either weren't able to say a lot or what they said was pretty boring because the article was skimpy on specifics. What caught my eye was a position of Randy Dutton. He wants "higher standards for teachers." My interest was piqued... what kind of standards? In looking at his website, apparently those standards will be raised by carrying a gun to school, finally; "full days of school"-whatever that means - personally I'd love to put in business hours. No more 5 am wake ups; increasing the number of k-8 schools - because those kindergartners don't swear enough; sending disruptive students to placed like Habit for Humanity - babysitting is what people volunteer for; and teaching more American History- too bad that with all the testing, no one ever gets past the Civil War... I'm not sure how any of these apply to teachers, ...

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