I can unfortunately echo Frances' sad agreements. In what passed for my
excuse for an education the 'English' teachers were right up there among
those I feared the most: for their snobbery, snidedness, failed writer
frustations and utter coldness.

I quite liked the Music teachers tho' : at least they had a feel for rhythm.

I always remember my first poem (I only used to write prose as a kid) I was
thirteen and it was set as an exercise - I thought, h'm, I can do one of
these. When our work was submitted it was in scraggy little exercise books
which Teacher took in at one lesson then returned with marks at the next.

When the books were handed back out mine had no mark. I went up to Teacher
and dared to complain: 'What book did you copy that out of Bircumshaw?' he
said.

I was a poor kid from the slums, you see, and I'd written a poem about the
Minotaur. Obviously I wouldn't know anything about that. Not in Teacher's
schemes of social prejudice.

Best

Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frances Sbrocchi" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 1:29 AM
Subject: Re: Poetry Down Under, Part II - The Book Report


> I can only, sadly, agree with you Alison. My grandson who reads
constantly
> and who had read all of the Lord of the Rings for the first time by fifth
grade
> and who at eighteen buys books weekly although studying computer science
> at university, saw no value in "English as a subject" in high school.
>
> As a librarian
> I have seen schools vary between pretentious attempts to introduce
teenagers
> to classics, disected line by line, and equally pretentious dumbing down
the
> selections studied. Kids love poetry if they hear it, see it, feel it,
and, if
> allowed the freedom to be imaginative, write it. The finest teachers that
> I encountered began that process in reverse, started and startled the
> kids into writing, then listening to themselves and others, and, finally
> reading, reading and reading, first the moderns, then the classics.
> (Shall spare you the CV.) Fran
>
>
> [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > >the stultifying, boring education system--most
> > >students are introduced to poetry seriously in high school, which is an
> > >institution more geared toward training people to show up and be
places on
> > >time and sit still for extended periods doing dull things--in fact what
most
> > >people's lives will be.
> > >
> > >Thus, almost is formed a knee jerk reaction : Poetry = dull= bad.
> >
> > As Hans Magnus Enzensberger said in reference to German poetry: There is
> > nothing more dangerous than a German teacher with a poem in his
briefcase.
> >
> > I've noticed that my son, who is surrounded with books at home and thus
> > privileged, and who writes obssessively - plays, novels - on an ancient
> > laptop in his bedroom, doesn't appear to associate this activity with
the
> > subject English at school. He has a fairly humourless English teacher.
> > I can't work out if this is a shame - maybe not for him, but doubtlessly
> > for others.
> >
> > Best
> >
> > Alison
>