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P O S T S C R I P T :
Why We Hesitate to Teach Poetry
and Why We Should Do It Anyway

by Pam Marquardt
Kindergarten and Second-Grade Teacher

There are lots of reasons for not teaching young children to write
poetry or to appreciate poetry beyond the most simple rhyming vari-
ety. I allowed these reasons to paralyze my teaching of poetry for several
years. I offer a list of them here because you might see your own
thoughts among mine:

1. A knowledge of poetry and/or an ability to compose poems will

not be covered in any standardized test given to young students;

2. A knowledge of poetry is not listed as essential in the state language

arts framework for elementary children. In fact, it appears that the
state language arts framework is only vaguely aware that poetry exists;

3. No parent, administrator, or colleague will consider a teacher

derelict in his or her duties if students complete the year without
learning the difference between a metaphor and a simile. The same
cannot be said for phonics or basic math;

4. You cannot extend the school day and can barely find time to
include music and art, let alone poetry;

69

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes: Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades. Judith Tannenbaum. Copyright 2000. Stenhouse Publishers.
All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
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5. Teaching children to appreciate and write poems was not part of

u your teacher training, and youre not sure how to begin;

6. Nowhere in your own education was poetry truly valued, taught, or

70 encouraged.
Teeth,
Wiggly as
Fortunately, despite my poetry paralysis, I was able to work with
Earthquakes
poet Judith Tannenbaum over the last six years. The above arguments
crumbled when faced with the simple beauty of the verses Judith
coaxed out of my students. How does one argue with student writing
like this?

ON THE WIND

Silent sleek
step by step I reach
the top of the end
of the world I know
and the beginning
of the world I dont
I step on the wind
It feels like Im
dancing Here, my friend,
is the beginning
yet the end.

Sophie Dresser, second grade

Nor was a poem like this one a fluke. Certainly some children
took to poetry more naturally than others, but I watched children
write beautiful poems with Judith year after year, despite their vary-
ing personalities, abilities, command of the English language, or age
differences.
Something else began to intrigue me as well. Often the most
insightful work came from students not traditionally seen as the most
academically gifted. Daydreamers unable to complete a single assign-
ment on time, children with persistent backward letter formation, kids
who found recording their observations in science logs an excruciating

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes: Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades. Judith Tannenbaum. Copyright 2000. Stenhouse Publishers.
All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
postscriptpdf.qxd 4/16/01 10:13 AM Page 71

task, and squirmers who couldnt sit still in a classroom discussion to

save their lives often composed deeply felt poems.
The excitement and pride these children felt when they shared their x
work was heartwarming. Here was an exercise in which they experi- 71
enced success. As a teacher of primary-age children, a crucial part of Postscript
my job is to help each child see that he or she can be a successful
learner. Poetry had just handed me another tool in this work.
What I came to realize is this: Children come to us with active
imaginations. Kindergartners in particular often arrive with the line
between reality and imagination only faintly drawn in their minds.
They leap effortlessly into that other world through their play and
drawing. The creative and nonrational side of their mind is not only
immediately accessible, but forms a large part of their thinking.
However, the majority of our teaching is aimed at teaching children to
think logically, sequentially, and rationallyas well it must be to pre-
pare them for the world at large. Numbers follow logical patterns. They
do not leap about and make friends with each other. Observations and
drawings in science logs must be based on reality. The sun is not wear-
ing a happy face. Even in creative story writing, we teach that each story
has a beginning, middle, and end. Characters must be introduced to the
reader, and plot must follow some understandable order. Attention
must be paid to the mechanics of punctuation and grammar. The
imagination struggles to find a place in all of this, and often ends up
languishing in some dark corner.
Poetry, however, takes the lid off and allows the world of imagina-
tion to bubble up. Capital letters can be ignored. Word usage can be
altered to suit the writer. One thought need not follow rationally from
another. Line breaks occur wherever the writer thinks best. What mat-
ters is that a feeling is communicated, a new way of looking at some-
thing is discovered, something of beauty is created. Poetry is one place
where we encourage children to create for the joy of creating. (Let us
pray that poetry never finds its way to the boxes on report cards!) All
children benefit from this experience. Young children benefit in partic-
ular because an important part of their world, the imagination, is
respected and developed. And for some children, having the world of
imagination welcomed is as essential as learning addition.

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes: Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades. Judith Tannenbaum. Copyright 2000. Stenhouse Publishers.
All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
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When we read the poems we love to children, we teach them that

u the world of imagination and creation is important. When we help

them write poems, we affirm our belief that they are important, cre-
72 ative people.
Teeth, Having convinced myself of the necessity of poetry in my class-
Wiggly as room, I encountered another obstacle. I felt that the success of the stu-
Earthquakes dents poetry work resided in the fact that Judith, herself a poet, was
their guide. Poetry is her passion, and she communicates this when she
teaches. Furthermore, she is extremely knowledgeable about all aspects
of poetry. I was afraid that an amateur such as myself would be unable
to guide students in their writing. The reality, however, was that Judiths
days in my classroom were numbered. Eventually, I was going to have
to learn how to teach poetry myself.
I began piloting the lessons in this book with my same old fears. At
least one lesson bombed, but with Judiths encouragement, I kept at it.
One day I was sharing the lesson Personifying Emotions on page 26
with my kindergartners. What would Happy wear if she were a per-
son? I asked.
A wedding dress, one enthusiastic voice volunteered.
With a nice bikini underneath, another child added.
Of course, I thought. Why hadnt I thought of it myself?

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes: Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades. Judith Tannenbaum. Copyright 2000. Stenhouse Publishers.
All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.