Poem why i teach

It bids us to touch and taste and hear and see the world, and shrink from all that is of the brain only. And we must find ways to talk about the difficult and unexplainable things in life -- death and suffering and even profound joy and transformation.

When people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read in school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy.

A tough life needs a tough language - and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers -- a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place. A final suggestion about bringing poetry into your lives: don't analyze it, don't ask others to analyze it.

Don't deconstruct it or try to make meaning of it. Find the poems that wake you up, that make you feel as if you've submerged yourself in a mineral hot spring or an ice bath; find the poems that make you feel almost irrational joy or sadness or delight. Find the poems that make you want to roll around in them or paint their colors all over your bedroom ceiling.

Those are the poems you want to play with -- forget the ones that don't make sense. But we played up a level in our league play, and rarely won. Injuries kept the seven I named from playing together in any one game through their last season. Never all three. Our football coach used to say you win games, or you build character.

We built a lot of character, in football and basketball. In our junior year, we got a new wrestling coach who followed many of the tenets of John Wooden — and the wrestling team won the state championship in our senior year. Mark Sanderson led the team; his younger brother Steve Sanderson followed him, adopted winning ways, and went on to father the great Sanderson wrestlers out of Heber, Utah.

Winning can be contagious when solid teaching meets young talent. Years later, when I consulted with corporations, especially on quality and excellence in performance. I often came across framed quotations from John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach — often framed, or etched in brass or stone, hanging on the wall of executives.

In a meeting on the importance of elders in a church congregation, national church officials referred back to the dramatic testimony from people in a California church, who swore an elder in their church had turned their lives around.

Turned out that John Wooden was that Disciples of Christ elder. How does a guy get so good, and say stuff that is so applicable to peak performance coaching in several different areas? Charlie Rose interviewed the author tonight. A builder sits beside him- Upward rise The arches of a church he builds, wherein That minister will speak the word of God, And lead a stumbling soul to touch the Christ.

Glennice L. And yet — I may. I knew him once, But then he was a boy. Harmon, in NEA Journal 37, no. Teachers matter! Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.

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Iron for our war machine. A busy blast furnace and the boiler house of another furnace are the background for a train of cinder ladles. Sometimes what we discover out there has to do with reflection that is internal, getting into that interior. A couplet is two successive lines of poetry. Read more. National Poetry Month. Materials for Teachers Teach This Poem. Poems for Kids. Poetry for Teens.

Lesson Plans. Resources for Teachers. Academy of American Poets. American Poets Magazine. Teach This Poem. Even when it comes to teaching primary school kids. It can be the backbone of English Literature lessons, from nursery, all the way up to university. So much of school is about meeting a word count or target, but poetry teaches us the impact of saying a lot in few words.

It also encourages us to consider the singular impact of each word in what we write. Likewise, understand the nuances of language, a key component of learning from poetry, can help students realise when language is used in advertising, the media and politics to manipulate them to make action. A simple poem might not seem like a big deal, but if it can teach this then it will set students up for life. Poetry also helps in understanding different perspectives.

Teaching and learning from poetry can help students respect and understand the viewpoints of people across the globe. In an age of increasing divisiveness, this is a hugely important education. Today, it is an ever-present issue, forcing the government to take action for