Teacher’s Lament in May

••••
Teacher’s lament in May

I am so tired.

These kids can’t think.

and in four weeks
I can’t teach them to think.

Education is not 12 minimal math skills
and the Cloze technique in
the Ginn reader.

It’s the active, mental participation
in the wonder called LIFE.

It’s a continuing love affair with
the beautiful, bizarre, wonderful
things filling our world.

It’s learning to love learning.

It’s a hunger for more.

But in this tired, sluggish,
TV-fed world,
the children yawn and shrug
and gaze at the wall.

Even that would be well
if they gazed and dreamed,
But they gaze
and think of nothing
and dream of nothing.

And eventually,
life is nothing.

c. 1985