CALIFORNIA POETS IN THE SCHOOLS
Conspiracy in the Schools: On Teaching Poetry to Children
by Maureen Hurley
"We are continually invited to become what we are," wrote Thoreau. What does this mean? Why do we, as poets, need to be in the schools?
Poet Gerald Stern (American Poetry Review, May, 1985), suggests that PITS is simply a device to help build future poetry audiences, to give poets Income and attention, to modernize curricula, or to discover budding Rimbauds among the masses. He expresses a certain doubt about the enterprise of "making" poets. Stern's doubts about the goals and purposes of PITS programs and their validity nationwide may come from the fact that he only worked three days with selected high school students.
As a California Poets in the Schools (CPITS) poet-teacher, I am interested in the development of similar programs across the country. CPITS is the largest artist in residence program of its kind. CPITS is successful because it's community-based. We spend more time in the classroom and we work several years within a given school or community. We start "teaching" poetry to kindergarteners. We don't wait until they're in high school.
Sonoma County poet Lee Perron sees the role of a PITS poet to be that of a disseminator of culture. In Forgotten Languages (CPITS 1985 Statewide Anthology), he writes that artists and poets represent a culture not present in schools and "its purpose is to nurture all people, especially the young." Whether or not we as poet-teachers can bring culture and creativity into the schools is a question we continually have to ask ourselves. Then there's the argument of "artist" versus "teacher." "Those who can paint, paint. Those who can't, teach," said my mother. Gerald Stern argues that one can't really "teach" poetry; only a select
few students are ^chosen" to become poets—with or without help from us.
The philosophy of CPITS is that every child has a creative potential to become a poet because we speak the beginnings of poetry with the same tool: oral tradition. Its roots reach into the paleolithic past. Why are people with strong literary commitments working in the schools? We live in a specialized society that inhibits and negates creative self expression.
Though Stern doubts that poetry can be taught, both he and Perron seem to agree that the craft of poetry writing can be taught. Perron writes, "from this kind of experience ... we've learned a fundamental principle: every kid who can write is able to write poetry." (I would add, every student able to dictate, is able to create poetry.) A poet-teacher provides a living role model for students which is probably more important than literary techniques, training and resources. To expose students to how a poet "thinks" is an unprecedented innovation within the school system.
Seymour Papert, the father of LOGO, the computer language for children, states (in an Omni interview, October 1985) that "one of the worst things about school is that it forces you to do things in one particular way. Schools also wrongly separate the aesthetic from the conceptual and so destroy the driving force of internal motivation."
Teachers are not trained in the arts or poetry. In California a teaching credential can be obtained without the prospective teacher ever having taken a class in art or creative writing—let alone poetry. Unfortunately, some of these teachers continue to churn out stale poetry units. Cinquains, rhymed closed forms, and haiku are not definitive examples of contemporary poetry. No mention of free verse. Poetry is a fine art, and should be taught by professional poets who can work well in the classroom.
We are in the classroom to restore what was lost. PITS poets help students to actively engage their imaginations. Stern comments that poet-teachers are trying to "domesticate the mystic process" of poetry. I'm not so certain domestication can occur — the beast is elusive. Papert says, "it's pretty well accepted that a poem would not be the same for any two people. This is because in our culture it is so contextual, and poemsare related to so many other things." This gets right back to why we need to be in the schools — to encourage divergent thinking. No right/wrong answers. Stern also warns against formulaic writing that produces a predictable end result.
If we lived in a country of poets, we wouldn't have to domesticate the process. In Nicaragua, the Minister of Culture, Ernesto Cardenal, established poetry talleres or workshops for children and adults who had recently learned to read and write. Poetry is the written niño of oral tradition. Nicaraguan poet Giocondo Belli, who used Kenneth Koch's classic tome, Wishes, Lies and Dreams to teach poetry to children, states that newly literate students' use of imagination, fresh language and metaphor is self-evident (see article by John Oliver Simon in Poetry Flash, November 1985). Whether or not poets "teach" poetry to children who come naturally to poetry is a moot point. We need to focus on what happens in the process of educating a child—what inhibits the natural rhythms.
Why I'm in the classroom has little to do with Stern's narcissistic view of the "PITS poet." Being close to the creative process, watching students use fresh language and invent new forms, I am able to see the results of working in-depth. The emotional, intellectual and philosophical content of student poetry is as complex as that of adult poetry. What student work lacks is maturity and craft. Craft can be taught. But first one needs material worth revising. To recognize what is "good" in a poem is a learned skill. One eleven-year-old poet boiled the process of revision down to this formula: "keep the good stuff." Refinement comes with practice.
If students aren't asked to use their poetic voice in school and everyday living, it's no small wonder they have trouble writing "sophisticated" poetry in high school, as Stern bemoans. No one learns enough physics or mathematics in three days to become a proficient scientist.
As for Stern's statement that we PITS poets do this sort of thing for income and attention—why not? In America, a general apathy toward artists is the norm. It's ironic that artists in so-called "third world" countries not only receive recognition, but are the ministers of culture and ambassadors. In Japan, a highly literate and cultured society, artists and writers are given the status of Living National Treasure. American poets such as Galway Kinnell have been so honored. In Ireland, artists pay no income taxes.
The rest of the world takes artists seriously. Russian poet Anna Akmahtova committed nothing to writing, leaving her poems, which were~not pro-government, oral, to be memorized by her close friends. In Chile, poet/musician Victor Jara denounced political oppression and the junta broke his hands. No longer able to play the guitar, he led the prisoners singing his poem—and the junta shot him. The power of the flowered word is not underestimated in those countries.
Poets working in the schools are in a position to affect mass consciousness — in Gerald Stern's words, "in a brutal, anti-poetic society." It all begins with the kids. A student of mine wrote, "A girl asleep at the table/ in the cool night/ with the doors open/ dreaming of prison/ awoke to find/ she was home." (Juliana Beaman, fifth grade). The kids who don't respond to traditional teaching methods often excel in the poetry workshops. Some of my best "poets" are classified as the "non-achievers" by their teachers. A curious item. These are the students who will never be chosen to work with a famous poet like Gerald Stern in his three-day high school pull-out class— provided that they ever get to high school.
High school students who get to spend three days with Stern are fortunate. Three days is a good start. But it is only a beginning. Poetry in the schools needs to begin when students are young. Something happens in our culture that cuts off creative expression by the time a child enters high school. Why make them wait that long?
And all students should be given the opportunity to write. In her poem "Portrait," sixth grader Rene King writes, "Recognize life/ and the way we live it/ without the everyday fear/ of not being able/ to see the sun/ shine brilliantly."
We're in the classroom to nurture and inspire the children and ourselves to become what we already are: poets. The origin of the word inspiration means "to breathe life into"—as in godhead. And the word conspiracy means "to commit the act of breathing together." We, as a conspiracy of poets in the schools, can inspire generations of future poets, and this in turn will have a profound effect on this "brutal and anti-poetic society."
Biographical Notes for Articles & Poems
Karen Holden is a CPITS poet from Los Angeles. Ben Hiatt is Coordinator of the Amador/El Dorado region and a publisher. Dianna Henning is CPITS Area Coordinator for the Grass Valley/ Nevada City area. Walter Pavlich is a CPITS poet from Davis. Elisa Adler is a CPITS poet working in Taylorsville. Maureen Hurley is CPITS Area Coordinator for Sonoma County.
I'm not sure when this was published, but it was reprinted in the June/July 1986 issue of Radius.
Going through boxes of old clippings, I found that it was also reprinted in April 1986 Poetic Space. Begins to narrow down when it was written. I think the first printing was in a CPITS newsletter.
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