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Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to your classroom!
Roll out of the hay!
You have knowledge in your head.
You have food in your tummy.
No matter what those kids say,
you’re nobody’s dummy!
Inside that big bag you have lessons galore.
No name calling can stop you, not even “YOU WHORE!”
You’ll walk up and down rows. Walk through them with care,
else you’ll trip before screaming, “Who left that book there?!”
With your bag full of lessons and name calling no thang,
you’ll still hit your head on a desk with a BANG.
You might not find the culprit
who so cruelly placed
that book in your path
so you’d smash up your face.
But that’s OK,
it wouldn’t matter anyway.
In that room you’re in charge,
except really you’re not.
It’s the parents who yell
when you punish their Snot.
And just when you think
you are making some gains,
a new law will pass
writ by some big shit for brains.
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The curriculum will be standardized.
Your expertise a big joke.
You will teach to the test,
adding mirrors to their smoke.
You’ll fight it and protest and insist it’s not right
in meetings, at the Capitol, and on news shows at night.
But no one will listen, not even the smart,
despite all the pleading you do from your heart.
For naught it is worth;
it’s the kids who will hurt.
What used to be fruitful
for teachers so true
is now but a desert
where little learning students do.
You can get all upset
with your panties in a wad,
or you can do what is right
in a system so flawed.
Put away those standards.
Lock the tests in the cupboard.
Ignite wonder and excitement
and with inspiration they’ll be smothered!
And when you’re feeling down,
just remember you’re charged
with making miracles happen
in that classroom, by and large.
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You’ll get chastised and punished
as you already know.
They’ll bash you and threaten and
sink to new lows.
So be sure when you tell them
their minion you’ll not be,
that the world is what you’ll offer
to tomorrow’s heroes with glee.
They may not like what you have to say,
but you’re the one who has to live with your conscience today.
And will you succeed?
By the students, indeed!
(Who cares to defer to political corruption and greed?)
TEACHER, YOU’LL MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE!
So…
Be your subject math or science or history
or English or fitness or the study of trees,
those dreams need some fuel!
Set those students’ minds free!
Then go home and pour a big glass of chablis.
Poem modeled after Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
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