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Sigmund A. Boloz Home > Educator's Poetry > New

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.

BASIC COMMITMENTS

We all owe this to another,
To be the best that we can,
To learn from our teaching,
To be thoughtful as we plan,

To be consistent in the quality
In every endeavor we undertake,
To be, above all else, professional
In the decisions that we make,

To share our knowledge with all others,
To beg others enter our door,
To share and assist one another,
To take care of ourselves a little more,

To contribute to our personal learning,
By seeking whatever answers we might need,
And finally, to be the most enthusiastic model,
To read and to read and to read.

WHO WILL?

Who will accept the opportunity,
The challenge that is laid,
The responsibility given
For the adjustments to be made?

Who will steer the course,
Illuminate the way,
Who will people the gates
Stand sentry night and day?

Who will offer the sympathetic ear,
Donate the compassionate heart,
Support genuine reflection,
Practice this most empowering art?

Who will champion their causes,
Step out into the lead,
And then once planted,
Who will teach them how to read?

For aren't they all our own children,
Those who answer to our bell?
And if teachers of reading do not step forward,
Then who will teach them well?

THE TEACHING TREE

Stand tall for children.
Spread your offshoots wide,
As you shelter, those emerging readers, from within
The shadows you provide.

Anchor your roots deeply,
So that readers may do the same.
Stretch your hopeful, searching branches
Extending our influence and domain.

Stand tall for the children,
Casting your protective literate canopy,
Always reaching, teaching skyward
As the beloved, teaching tree.

THE GREATEST SPORT

Reading is not a race
But a life-long event,
Not measured in laps
But in enlightenment.

Reading is not a sprint
To the end of periods or of years,
But the fulfillment of self
By of traversing frontiers.

Reading is not a chase
But a search of sorts,
A life-long event,
And the greatest of sports.

WE NEVER KNOW

We never know within our teaching
Which reading lives we are really reaching,
Or which lives we may touch today
By some simple comment we may say.

We never know within our teaching
Which reading lives we are really reaching,
Which lives are ripest, most ready to rearrange,
Or which are best prepared for chance.

We never know within our teaching
Which reading lives we are really reaching,
Which children are truly, clearly there,
Or which beliefs brew beneath each stare.

We never know within our teaching
Which reading lives we are really reaching,
Which crippling doubts each life embraces,
Or which dreams hide behind blank stares and faces.

We never know within our teaching
Which reading lives we are really reaching,
So, therefore;
We must teach . . .
To reach them all.

BE BRAVE ENOUGH

Be brave enough
to love and to be loved,
to listen, to guide and to excel.
Be brave enough
to respect and to be respected,
to learn and to use what you know well.

Be brave enough
to laugh and to forgive,
to be counted and to belong.
Be brave enough
to speak up, to stand up and to step up.
Be brave enough
to touch the lives of children,
in only the most meaningful ways.
Be brave enough
to choose to be a teacher of reading
for the rest of your days.

WORKERS, HARD WORKERS

Not simple hirelings,
Compensated to serve.
Not domestics, who get
Only what they deserve.

But workers, hard workers,
Laboring none-the-less,
Striving and sweating
To guarantee success.

Not menial laborers, employees,
who profit by toil,
Not unskilled, minimum-wage earners scraping by
on scraping the soil.

But workers, hard workers,
Always struggling none-the-less,
Grappling and straining
To ensure each child's progress.

Quite a profession,
This teaching field,
Full of rocks, boulders
And stones concealed.

But full of professionals
Enablers of distinctive dreams,
Magicians, facilitators,
And directors of genius-like themes.

But most of all, workers,
Hard workers, yes, indeed,
Exceptionally hard workers
Who teach our children to read.

Some teachers might not want
such a child in their day,
for he was always underfoot,
forever in their way.
Many might even see him,
as best viewed from afar,
at any point within the school
farthest from anywhere that the teachers are.

For this is the type of child
who some teachers might wish would go away,
a troublemaker with far too much energy
to unlease out at play.

But in our lived-reality as reading teachers,
dropped deep within our souls,
we must remember why we became teachers of reading
as our original, primary goal.

For this is exactly the type of child
that reading teachers should want in their day
for he can be under their supportive influence,
forever within their positive sway.
And every child is our child,
A child who should never be viewed from afar,
rather, close, at some point within your classroom,
closet to anywhere that we teachers currently are.

The type of child who we teachers
should wish would stay,
an emergent reader with energy that could be redirected
within a good teacher's sway.

For we are also the ones who need him,
And we would benefit from his stay,
For he would remind us why we, teachers of reading,
Are called to teach every day.