DaveKemper.net

you were our angelfish,
eye-catching in every way

add in your popularity,
granted to you as if it were a birthright,
and you must have been the envy
of every girl in the school

you earned A’s and B’s on the busy work
I assigned, but truth be told,
it would have been hard for me
to give someone like you lower grades
(perfection is perfection)

upon graduation, your plans included
attending tech school to study accounting

a disheartening decision, to say the least,
for a vital young girl such as yourself–
to issue deadening financial forecasts
from some corporate neon cubicle

*************************************************
Hannah, at age 13 or 14,
neither you nor your classmates,
should have been thinking
about tech schools or careers

nor  should  you have been
completing the thoughtless work
that I assigned

I should have provided you
with a more stimulating classroom–  
     one that introduced you to good literature,
     engaged you in thoughtful conversations,
     and gave  you time and space to reflect

as it was, I tried to do all of the thinking for the class,
which meant  little, if anything, 
meaningful was ever accomplished

“A real education is when we take responsibility for our own lives.”
                                                                                      –John Taylor Gatto

with few exceptions, the students
who started school in the district,
stayed  together, year after year,
all the way through graduation–
just like their older brothers and sisters
had done before them

you came to us, Don, Southern drawl and all,
from a small river town in Kentucky,
and lacking the deep roots of home,
dear boy, was the rub

I heard from teachers that
you screwed around, even mouthed off,
in a couple of your classes–
certainly not unexpected behavior
for someone trying to fit in

what you didn’t do,
at least in my English class,
was apply yourself, at all

perhaps you thought why bother or who cares
or this stuff doesn’t matter
or I probably won’t be here for long anyway

lacking the gravitational pull of purpose,
you did nothing more than show up–
a semiliterate in school and in life in the making

looking back: why did I make it so easy
for you (shame on me)

*********************************************

what you needed was a personal mentor,
not to help you catch up on your basic skills,
that was the least of your problems

no, you needed someone who clearly
understood the enervating effects of disinterest

someone who could have helped you
appreciate the importance of setting goals,
of staying on task,
of being responsible for your own actions (more…)