I ask students,
“How do your teachers usually start the first day of school?”
They answer in chorus,
“Rules and consequences!”
I ask students,
“Do you ask more questions at school
Or answer more?”
“We’re afraid to ask questions.
We’ll get yelled at.”
I ask students,
“When you write, who gets to choose the topic?”
“The Teacher!”
I ask students,
“When you write, who gets to focus the topic?”
“The Teacher!”
I ask students,
“Who chooses how many ideas you may have,
And how you organize them?”
“The Teacher!”
“Who gets to decide your tone and level of formality?”
“The Teacher!”
“Who decides which articles you will use for your details –
in lieu of using details from your actual life?”
“The Teacher!”
“Who is really making all the choices when you write?”
“The Teacher!”
I ask them,
“Who tells you what to think when you read?”
“The Teacher!”
“Who determines what the correct answers are
To the questions at the end of what you read?”
“The Teacher!”
“Who guides you to what you should look for when you read
So that you can answer the benchmark aligned questions?”
“The Teacher!”
“When do you get to respond to a story, essay, poem, or book
From your own head and with your own heart,
To have your own thoughts and reactions?”
“Never!” they say,
Or at best, “Only when we read on our own!”
I send them to the bathroom,
In a desperate race to the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid
To take care of basic bodily needs
In the one open bathroom a quarter of a mile away
And they are told to return to class
Because they are no longer in the window of eligibility.
I tell them,
“Create a simile:
School is like a blank.”
Many of them write, “Prison!”
And we wonder why so few are enthusiastic
About talking about liberty for all
First thing in the morning
With their hands over their hearts.