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Sigmund A. Boloz Home > Poetry for Educators

THE TRUE READING WARS

I have watched the eyes of children who are having difficulty learning to read, and I have come to the realization that the teaching of reading has a critical, life-shaping importance to each child’s emotional being. Reading can be taught in ways that are sensible and sensitive, or punitive and destructive. Reading can be taught in ways that make children feel confident, competent, and capable, that encourage children’s self-motivation to seek new discoveries, and that cause children to be life-long readers. However; reading also can be taught in ways that destroy a child’s self-image, which makes otherwise intelligent children feel stupid, helpless, and powerless; that alienate them and make them bitterly, openly hostile; and that deprive children of the emotional foundation so essential to healthy development. And yet we know that how children think of themselves will dictate whether more learning is urged or whether future learning seems next to impossible — whether children will become enamored of the printed word or engage in a war against reading.

CONSIDER THE CHILDREN

Consider the children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry. Can we continue to brood only
about bell schedules,
the next grade,
the next test?
What will these children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry, need to be like ten years from now?
These children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry, depend on you, and me,
to prepare their literate paths,
to ready them with dignity,
excellence, and equity
for the world in which they will live.
Can we continue to speak to only ourselves,
to do what we do, only because we always have?
Consider the children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry.
Our standards cannot remain stagnant.
We cannot continue to operate on a 1950's mentality of literacy,
to thirst with Cadillac appetite on a Volkswagen budget,
where attendance is mandatory but learning is optional.
Consider the children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry. The time is right now to change,
to get off the dead horse,
to do the right things,
to find the right things to do.
Consider the children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry. Let us then lead with our best foot,
keep teaching simple yet passionate,
keep learning rigorous yet relevant,
to each child,
to every child, nearest to us,
about whom we worry.
Can we continue to brood only
about bell schedules,
the next grade,
the next test?
Consider the children, nearest to you,
about whom you worry.

One Mind At A Time
inspired by Armida G. Bittner

Perhaps it is when I am most tired
that I tend to forget that each child matters,
regardless of haircut, lice, or home circumstance.

Perhaps it is when I am most tired
that I tend to forget that each child matters,
that these children are not here
to meet my requirements;
rather, that I am here to meet theirs,
one child, one face,
one set of eyes, one mind at a time.

Perhaps it is when I am most tired
that I tend to forget that I also matter,
and that while I am only one person,
that I am, still one person,
an agent of change,
essential,
powerful,
capable of influencing one reader’s world.

Perhaps it is when I am most tired
that I should reach inside and summon the courage to remember
that each of us must also matter to the other,
regardless of haircut, lice, or home circumstance,
one person, one face,
one set of eyes, one mind at a time.

STARTING OVER

All educators have had at least one experience of starting a career in a new school. We have had the experience of not knowing exactly what to expect, of not understanding the rules-- written or unwritten-- and of not recognizing whom to trust and whom to avoid. There is little strength in starting over when it is not your choice. There is little effectiveness in bridging from the obscure to the unknown. Few principals would choose to face each and every year with an entirely new staff. Few teachers would wish to begin each and every year in a new classroom, in a new school, with unknown materials and unclear procedures.

Why, then, do we not question the effectiveness of asking most students to face each and every year with a new teacher?

ORDINARY TEACHERS

It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
to live through the difficult, the complex and the controversial
challenges, dilemmas, and frustrations of their everyday lives
and yet to keep searching.

It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
to endure the immeasurable inventory of reforms,
the newest fashionable curricula, the broken promises of many educational solutions,
the countless costly silver bullets, the endless list of easy answers
and yet to keep searching.

It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
to be pushed to the limit of human endurance
by unimportant and irrelevant workshops,
by information and paperwork overload,
by the flood of tests and standards,
by curriculum committees and team meetings,
by the ever shrinking clock that leaves no time to care
and yet to keep searching.

It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
to endure the troublesome parents, the troubled children,
To outlast the frustrating days that come too often
in the real world, in real school, in real classrooms
and yet to keep searching.

It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
to serve so many masters
and yet to strive to be purposeful and thoughtful,
to be excited by change,
to find joy even in the light of one student’s eyes
and to remember to pay attention
to the fundamental reason that they went into teaching
-- the students and the learning
and yet to keep searching.

Yes, it takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
the extraordinary courage of an ordinary teacher.