Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Every year, I read poetry in December. It started as a way to briefly untether from the tsunami of non-fiction and prose that rules the day. Over time, it became a habit.
In the first stanza of one of Emily Dickinson’s 1,800 untitled poems, she describes the difference between poetry and prose this way:
I Dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
One of the things I love about poetry is its very intentional break with convention. Many great poets demonstrate a deep understanding of poetic structures, and then defy them. They challenge how words, syntax, ideas, and punctuation are employed and, in so doing, forge new meaning and modes of expression.
In that sense, poetry is both iconoclastic and transformational—and therein lies an essential connection between poetry and learning.
Whether teacher, leader, scholar, or policymaker – we must learn to work effectively within existing systems and structures. In that sense, we work in prose, navigating the educational architecture of our inheritance. We work to understand it, adapt it and improve it so it might better meet the needs of the students and families we serve.
And we must also work in poetry. Like Dickinson, we must be experts in inherited conventions, and defy them.
We must defy our profession’s outmoded, unhelpful dedication to the Carnegie Unit and bring effective competency-based teaching and learning to life at a broad scale.
We must upend the idea of the hyper-siloed world of the high school classroom and ensure every student has opportunities to solve real problems, engage in experiential learning, and develop the skills that predict success.
We must tear down the tall walls that have been erected between high school, postsecondary education, and work, and instead build clear, unfettered pathways that enable young people to move seamlessly from school to dignified lives.
These kinds of changes won’t come without poetry. Or better put, they won’t come without poets. But with them—with you—millions more young people will rise, and our economy and democracy will rise with them.
Wishing you very warm and joyous holidays!
In partnership,
%20(2).png?upscale=true&width=450&upscale=true&name=CAR%20logo_INTER_Black@4x%20(1)%20(2).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=600&upscale=true&name=CFN_600x400_Feb24_v4%20(2).png)
