The Day the Experts Came to School

Some days I love being an Elementary Guest Teacher.  Some days not so much. 

Today was one of those days.  

They are dissecting the stories,

deciding the children should 'level' 

their love of literature,

as if they could explode the

mystery of words and flatten it,

equalize the field of flowers that are

pictures, implode the language,

flatline the cadence and 

diagnose the wonder.

They have instead

rendered the reading lifeless,

without oxygen, no heartbeat

sucked the air out of the room

and killed all the joy.

The patients are barely

breathing.

"Leveled" indeed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In all fairness, there ARE days where the magic happens. Here's a link to something I wrote about this summer using Tania Runyan's book "How to Read a Poem".