Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry About School

by Anderson, Maggie; Hassler, David; Coles, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780877456636
• ISBN10: 0877456631
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

Learning by Heartbrings together a unique and diverse collection of poems about the experience of school as seen through the eyes of America's best contemporary poets. These poets capture the educational process not only in the classroom but as it takes place in libraries and hallways, on playing fields and at dances. Alternately joyous and defiant, they demonstrate how it is that young people come to find their place in the world.Most of the poems in this anthology were written between 1970 and 1995, a period that encompasses both the halcyon years of poets-in-the-schools programs and the primary and secondary school years of many of the poets included. Their poems define school in that most contemporary sense - "with a multitude of voices"-reflecting perspectives from African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Native American as well as Anglo American backgrounds, from both public and private schools in rural and urban environments.Learning by Heartoffers a profound and timely statement about schools and learning as well as the role of art in education. Finally, these poems validate that most important lesson: even the most common of experiences is worthy of creative expression.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Editors' Note
Painting the North San Juan School	p. 3
The School Children	p. 5
Taking My Son to School	p. 6
Schoolboys with Dog, Winter	p. 7
Spring Glen Grammar School	p. 8
Teacher	p. 9
Home	p. 11
Cruel Boys	p. 12
Beginners	p. 13
Our Room	p. 16
Sunny Days	p. 17
The Sandhills, Early Winter	p. 18
Room 19, Eakin Elementary	p. 20
Zimmer's Head Thudding against the Blackboard	p. 21
Two-Room Schoolhouse	p. 22
Hotel Nights with My Mother	p. 24
The Sacred	p. 25
Poet in Residence at a Country School	p. 26
Letter to a Substitute Teacher	p. 27
Waiting	p. 29
Gee, You're So Beautiful That It's Starting to Rain	p. 31
The Teacher Said	p. 32
Raising Their Hands	p. 33
School Buses	p. 34
Diction	p. 37
Learning in the First Grade	p. 38
Persimmons	p. 39
Spanish Lessons	p. 42
Name Giveaway	p. 43
Faggot	p. 44
Definitions	p. 46
The Spelling-Bee as Foreshadowing	p. 47
Spelling	p. 48
Yuba City School	p. 49
Learning to Read	p. 50
How Grammar School Is Changing	p. 51
Penmanship	p. 52
Catatonia: In a Classroom for the Slow to Learn	p. 53
Rain	p. 54
Reaching to a Sky of Soba	p. 55
Advice to Young Writers	p. 57
Ode	p. 58
Learning Spanish	p. 60
Lecciones de la Lengua, 1970	p. 62
How My Father Learned English	p. 63
The History Teacher	p. 67
Nostalgia	p. 68
Drill, 1957	p. 69
Soul Make a Path through Shouting	p. 70
Janes Avenue	p. 72
Lunch	p. 73
How Steel Shapes Our Lives: Grade Two, Arlington Elementary	p. 74
Public School 190, Brooklyn 1963	p. 76
Sunglasses: Air Raid Drill at Wildwood Elementary, November 22, 1963	p. 77
Plum-Dark Humor	p. 78
Spitting in the Leaves	p. 79
Indian Boarding School: The Runaways	p. 80
The Grade School I Attended Was Next to a Slaughterhouse	p. 81
Busing	p. 82
Bully	p. 84
St. Peter Claver	p. 85
Barbie Says Math Is Hard	p. 86
A History of Sexual Preference	p. 87
Day-Tripping	p. 89
Fears of the Eighth Grade	p. 91
Among Children	p. 92
Autobiographia Literaria	p. 97
Stayed Back	p. 98
Schoolyard in April	p. 99
Escape	p. 100
Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School	p. 101
Recess	p. 102
Beating up Billy Murphy in Fifth Grade	p. 103
Saving the Crippled Boy	p. 104
Catholics	p. 105
The Beating	p. 107
Sex Ed	p. 108
Third Day of Spring	p. 109
Directions for Resisting the SAT	p. 110
The Truant Officer's Helper	p. 111
God's Stopwatch	p. 114
Field Trip to My First Time	p. 117
Field Trip to the Mill	p. 119
First Grade	p. 123
The High School Band	p. 124
First Practice	p. 125
Homecoming	p. 126
For the Cheerleaders of Garfield High	p. 127
Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio	p. 128
At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School	p. 129
Hockey Season	p. 130
The Pageant	p. 131
In the Elementary School Choir	p. 132
Junior High Dance	p. 134
Going Full-Court	p. 136
The School	p. 138
Cheerleaders	p. 139
When Your Father Is Also Your Wrestling Coach	p. 141
Passing	p. 143
Instruction	p. 145
Stuart Rieger	p. 146
The Supremes	p. 149
Recess	p. 150
What Saves Us	p. 152
Class Reunion	p. 153
Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon	p. 155
Flash Cards	p. 156
Pass/Fail	p. 157
M. Degas Teaches Art and Science at Durfee Intermediate School	p. 158
Bonfire	p. 160
Dropout	p. 162
Graduation Notes: for Mungu, Morani, Monica and Andrew and Crefield Seniors	p. 163
Merle: Uncle Seagram	p. 164
David Talamantez on the Last Day of Second Grade	p. 166
The Nuns of Childhood: Two Views	p. 171
Shapes, Vanishings	p. 173
Execution	p. 175
Dojo	p. 176
Brother Alvin	p. 178
Teaching	p. 179
Childhood Ideogram	p. 180
Gratitude to Old Teachers	p. 182
School Days	p. 183
The Thing You Must Remember	p. 184
The Schoolroom on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill	p. 185
Schoolsville	p. 186
Mrs. Krikorian	p. 188
Drawing Hands	p. 190
Zimmer in Grade School	p. 191
The Boy in the Park	p. 192
Mrs. Goldwasser	p. 194
Mrs. Orton	p. 195
Mr. Glusenkamp	p. 196
Miss Goff	p. 197
The Teacher	p. 198
Notes on Contributors	p. 199
Permissions	p. 219
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