I share your view of Motion, John, and am glad you
wrote favourably about him.I think it was also good to
point out some of the facts about university teachers.
Cheers, cara
--- John Garner-Stowe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> As an academic who is responsible for the
> organisation of many poetry
> events, I can tell
> you that although the students get time "off" during
> the summer, the staff
> do not. There
> are many institutions now which run courses through
> the summer and many
> academic
> staff who carry on through the summer, except for
> their normal holidays
> which they have
> to take during this period, because they cannot take
> them through student
> contact time.
>
> As for Andrew, he is one of the hardest working Poet
> Laureates that the UK
> has ever had.
> He is working hard to help schools find new ways of
> approaching poetry and
> showing
> that it can be entertaining and interesting and
> leading people to realise
> that it can have a
> meaning in there lives.
>
> Through the summer I have had the pleasure of
> working with four poets and
> three other
> writers who have never stopped working for the whole
> of that period. Many
> were
> planning things related to National Poetry Day one
> of them whose programme I
> deal with
> has four school readings, two workshops two "guest"
> readings and still has
> to carry out
> his usual job as a university lecturer. This week
> for many poets has been
> in the planning
> for months. I think some of you know Jim Bennett
> who is from the North
> West, he has
> three TV and radio interviews planned for national
> poetry Day in addition to
> five other
> appearances over two days. This does not just
> happen and it takes months of
> work and
> planning to ensure that poetry gets its one day
> right. For people to make
> glib statements
> about academics and October beggars belief because
> it is so far from the
> truth.
>
> >
> John
>
>
>
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