Teaching with Fire : Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach

by Intrator, Sam M.; Scribner, Megan

• ISBN13: 9780787969707
• ISBN10: 0787969702
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-10
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Reclaim Your Fire"Teaching with Fire is a glorious collection of the poetry that has restored the faith of teachers in the highest, most transcendent values of their work with children....Those who want us to believe that teaching is a technocratic and robotic skill devoid of art or joy or beauty need to read this powerful collection. So, for that matter, do we all." –Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace and Savage Inequalities"When reasoned argument fails, poetry helps us make sense of life. A few well-chosen images, the spinning together of words creates a way of seeing where we came from and lights up possibilities for where we might be going....Dip in, read, and ponder; share with others. It's inspiration in the very best sense." –Deborah Meier, co-principal of The Mission Hill School, Boston and founder of a network of schools in East Harlem, New York"In the Confucian tradition it is said that the mark of a golden era is that children are the most important members of the society and teaching is the most revered profession. Our jour ney to that ideal may be a long one, but it is books like this that will sustain us - for who are we all at our best save teachers, and who matters more to us than the children?" –Peter M. Senge, founding chair, SoL (Society for Organizational Learning) and author of The Fifth DisciplineThose of us who care about the young and their education must find ways to remember what teaching and learning are really about. We must find ways to keep our hearts alive as we serve our students. Poetry has the power to keep us vital and focused on what really matters in life and in schooling. Teaching with Fire is a wonderful collection of eighty-eight poems from such well-loved poets as Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, and Pablo Neruda. Each of these evocative poems is accompanied by a brief story from a teacher explaining the significance of the poem in his or her life's work. This beautiful book also includes an essay that describes how poetry can be used to grow both personally and professionally.Teaching With Fire was written in partnership with the Center for Teacher Formation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Royalties from this book will be used to fund scholarship opportunities for teachers to grow and learn.

Author Biography

Sam M. Intrator is assistant professor of education and child study at Smith College. He is a former high school teacher and administrator and the son of two public school teachers. He is the editor of Stories of the Courage to Teach and author of Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom.<BR>

Table of Contents

Gratitudes	xi
A Note to Our Readers
by Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner	xiii
Introduction
by Parker J. Palmer and Tom Vander Ark	xvii
Hearing the Call	1	(22)
Bob O'Meally's "Make Music with Your Life"
submitted by John J. Sweeney	2	(2)
Marge Piercy's "To be of use"
submitted by Katya Levitan-Reiner	4	(2)
Pablo Neruda's "The Poet's Obligation"
submitted by William Ayers	6	(2)
Gabriele D'Annunzio's "I pastori"
submitted by Susan Etheredge	8	(2)
Emily Dickinson's "The Chariot"
submitted by Judy R. Smith	10	(2)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar"
submitted by Marj Vandenack	12	(2)
William Stafford's "The Way It Is"
submitted by Lisa Drumheller Sudar	14	(2)
Walt Whitman's Preface to "Leaves of Grass" [Excerpt]
submitted by Lori Douglas	16	(2)
Langston Hughes's "Dream Deferred"
submitted by Heather Kirkpatrick	18	(2)
Marian Wright Edelman's "I Care and I'm Willing to Serve"
submitted by Linda Lantieri	20	(3)
Cherishing the Work	23	(24)
Billy Collins's "First Reader"
submitted by Sandra Dean	24	(2)
Gary Snyder's "Axe Handles"
submitted by Curtis Borg	26	(2)
David Whyte's "Working Together"
submitted by Jani Barker	28	(2)
Marcie Hans's "Fueled"
submitted by Betsy Motten	30	(2)
William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow"
submitted by Sarah Fay	32	(2)
George Venn's "Poem Against the First Grade"
submitted by Theresa Gill	34	(2)
Jeff Moss's "On the Other Side of the Door"
submitted by Lamson T. Lam	36	(2)
Lydia Cortés's "I Remember"
submitted by Sonia Nieto	38	(2)
Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
submitted by Troyvoi Hicks	40	(2)
Gary Blankenburgs "The Mouse"
submitted by Ellen Shull	42	(2)
Lewis Buzbee's "Sunday, Tarzan in His Hammock"
submitted by Dan Mindich	44	(3)
On the Edge	47	(22)
John Milton's "Paradise Lost, Book VIII"
submitted by John I. Goodlad	48	(2)
Stephen Sondheim's "Children Will Listen"
submitted by Don Shalvey	50	(2)
Al Zolynas's "Love in the Classroom"
submitted by Ron Petrich	52	(2)
Billy Collins's "On Turning Ten"
submitted by Chip Wood	54	(2)
Li-Young Lee's "The Gift"
submitted by Kelly Gallagher	56	(2)
Mary Oliver's "The Journey"
submitted by Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy	58	(2)
Yehuda Amichai's "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children"
submitted by Shifra Schonmann	60	(2)
Jellaludin Rumi's "The Lame Goat"
submitted by Michael Poutiatine	62	(2)
Linda McCarriston's "Hotel Nights with My Mother"
submitted by Wanda S. Praisner	64	(2)
Lucile Burt's "Melissa Quits School"
submitted by Leslie Rennie-Hill	66	(3)
Holding On	69	(24)
Denise Levertov's "Witness"
submitted by Robert Kunzman	70	(2)
Octavio Paz's "After"
submitted by Catherine Johnson	72	(2)
Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese"
submitted by Elizabeth V.V. Bedell	74	(2)
William Butler Yeats's "Everything That Man Esteems"
submitted by Betsy Wice	76	(2)
May Sarton's "Now I Become Myself"
submitted by Amy Eva-Wood	78	(2)
Annie Dillard's "Teaching a Stone to Talk" [Excerpt]
submitted by Libby Roberts	80	(2)
David Whyte's "Sweet Darkness"
submitted by Jeanine O'Connell	82	(2)
Rubin Alves's "Tomorrow's Child"
submitted by Sarah Smith	84	(2)
Donald Hall's "Names of Horses"
submitted by Laurel Leahy	86	(2)
Judy Brown's "Fire"
submitted by Maggie Anderson	88	(2)
Margaret Walker's "For My People"
submitted by Tracy Swinton Bailey	90	(3)
In the Moment	93	(22)
Elizabeth Carlson's "Imperfection"
submitted by Glynis Wilson Boultbee	94	(2)
David Wagoner's "Lost"
submitted by Fred Taylor	96	(2)
Wendell Berry's "A Purification"
submitted by Rick Jackson	98	(2)
Marge Piercy's "The seven of pentacles"
submitted by Sally Z. Hare	100	(2)
Pablo Neruda's "Keeping Quiet"
submitted by Catherine Gerber	102	(2)
Gary Snyder's "What Have I Learned"
submitted by Penie Longo	104	(2)
Wislawa Szymborska's "There But for the Grace"
submitted by Lesley Woodward	106	(2)
Derek Walcott's "Love After Love"
submitted by David Hagstrom	108	(2)
William Stafford's "You Reading This, Be Ready"
submitted by Lucile Burt	110	(2)
Edgar A. Guest's "Don't Quit"
submitted by Reg Weaver	112	(3)
Making Contact	115	(24)
Charles Olson's "These Days"
submitted by John Fox	116	(2)
Donna Kate Rushin's "The Bridge Poem"
submitted by Debbie S. Dewitt	118	(2)
Seamus Heaney's "The Cure at Troy" [Excerpt]
submitted by Jim Burke	120	(2)
Virginia Satin's "Making Contact"
submitted by Dennis Littky	122	(2)
John Moffitt's "To Look at Any Thing"
submitted by Angela Peery	124	(2)
Jellaludin Rumi's "Two Kinds of Intelligence"
submitted by Marianne Houston	126	(2)
Adrienne Rich's "Dialogue"
submitted by Adam D. Bunting	128	(2)
Galway Kinnell's "Saint Francis and the Sow"
submitted by Libby Falk Jones	130	(2)
Maxine Kumin's "Junior Life Saving"
submitted by Thomasina LaGuardia	132	(2)
Gary Soto's "Saturday at the Canal"
submitted by Steve Elia	134	(2)
Adrienne Rich's "Diving into the Wreck"
submitted by Penny Gill	136	(3)
The Fire of Teaching	139	(28)
Wislawa Szymborska's "A Contribution to Satistics"
submitted by Elizabeth Meadox	140	(2)
E.E. Cummings's "You Shall Above All Things"
submitted by Mark Nepo	142	(2)
Mary Oliver's "The Summer Day"
submitted by Caren Bassett Dybek	144	(2)
Ranier Maria Rilke's "Archaic Torso of Apollo"
submitted by Rob Reich	146	(2)
Robert Graves's "Warning to Children"
submitted by Ali Stewart	148	(2)
Wallace Steven's "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain"
submitted by Samuel Scheer	150	(2)
Langston Hughes's "My People"
submitted by Mary Cowhey	152	(2)
nikki giovanni's "the drum"
submitted by Sam Grabelle	154	(2)
nila northSun's "moving camp too far"
submitted by Tom Weiner	156	(2)
Czeslaw Milosz's "Gift"
submitted by Suzanne Strauss	158	(2)
T.S. Eliot's "East Coker"
submitted by Stephen Gordon	160	(2)
Naomi Shihab Nye's "Shoulders"
submitted by Marcy Jackson	162	(2)
Bettve T. Spinner's "Harvest Home"
submitted by Linda Powell Pruitt	164	(3)
Daring to Lead	167	(26)
Rabindranath Tagore's "Where the Mind Is Without Fear"
submitted by Tony Wagner	168	(2)
Barbara Kingsolver's "Beating Time"
submitted by Susan Klonsky	170	(2)
Thomas Jefferson's "Passage from a Letter to William Charles Jarvis"
submitted by Theodore R. Sizer	172	(2)
Robert Herrick's "Delight in Disorder"
submitted by Edward Alan Katz	174	(2)
Rainer Maria Rilke's "I Believe in All That Has Never Yet Been Spoken"
submitted by Tom Vander Ark	176	(2)
Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"
submitted by Joe Nathan	178	(2)
nikki giovanni's "ego-tripping"
submitted by Janice E. Jackson	180	(2)
Anne Sexton's "Courage"
submitted by Wendy Kohler	182	(2)
William Stafford's "Silver Star"
submitted by Jay Casbon	184	(2)
Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" [Excerpt]
submitted by Sandra Feldman	186	(2)
Vaclav Havel's "It Is I Who Must Begin"
submitted by Diana Chapman Walsh	188	(2)
Marge Piercy's "The low road"
submitted by Parker J. Palmer	190
Tending the Fire:The Utility of Poetry in a Teacher's Life
by Sam M. Intrator	193	(20)
About the Courage to Teach Program	213	(2)
The Contributors	215	(10)
The Editors	225