"Behind Great Minds" (poem) >>> A Tribute to Those Who Teach Our Children
My daughter is in Grade 11. Throughout her time in school, she has had the great fortune of having some truly amazing teachers. She is an inspired learner.
In elementary school, at the end of each school year, I wrote a poem for her teachers (I'm planning to ask each of them for permission to post their poems on Steemit). They were gifts that generated more than a few tears. Apparently, few people actually take the time to thank these people who dedicate their lives to teaching our children.
So, here is a toast in tribute to all those teachers who don't hear in enough.
Thank you.
What a wonderful gift for these teachers. My wife does the same thing - a personal note to each one telling them of something special they did for our kids that made their day. It is so easy to do this and it means so much to the teachers. Upvoted.
@offgridlife,
The poems contain their names, so I want to get their permission before posting. I don't think it'll be a problem. When my daughter and I go back to visit (usually once a year), ALL of the framed poems are hung prominently on the wall behind their respective desks. There was a lot of girl-boohooing when we presented them with the poems ... you'd think we'd given them a Mercedes Benz.
Once a week for 6 years (elementary school K thru 5), I'd go in and tutor the kids who were struggling in math. To this day, 5-10 years later, I still get assaulted in the grocery store or in a restaurant. Often I barely recognize the kids (they've grown up) but they recognize me.
I'm ex-military: When they got questions wrong, I'd make them do push-ups. When they got them right, I'd do the push-ups. I told them I'd either make them very smart or very strong. Their choice. Their grades sky-rocketed. The poor teachers, they were always pretty worried about getting disciplined for allowing my "teaching techniques."
In the end, though, even the Principal was in on it and I got away with murder ... although one teacher did make me stand in the corner on occasion. Class Science Fair projects (Yahoo) ... one year my daughter's teacher had the kids get under their desks while she peered out from behind a bookshelf. Sometimes ... science requires courage. No one died ... we just had to open the door and few windows.
Alas, Middle School killed all the fun. No more parents in the classroom.
I'm surprised more parents, or retired people, don't get involved. I cannot recall a time in my life when I had more fun.
I'm glad to hear your wife expresses appreciation for your teachers. They don't hear it very often, and they should.
You have pointed to some great teachers indeed but oddly all of them Greek. Not sure of Alexander in their company. What of eastern philosophers, or even more modern ones?
@prydefoltz,
Hi Pryde.
My poem required a lineage.
A teacher (Socrates) taught a student (Plato), who became a teacher, who taught a student (Aristotle) who became a teacher, who taught a student (Alexander The Great) ... who unified the "Hellenic World," defeated the armies of the largest empire on Earth (Persia) despite being massively outnumbered ... and thereby was responsible for the worldwide spread of Hellenic ideas and the foundation of "Western Civilization"- which changed the world.
To the best of my knowledge, no such cause-and-effect lineage exists anywhere else in history.
Alexander was a psychopathic megalomaniac who brought death and suffering where ever he went. Perhaps Greek philosophy has spread and persists because it holds value. There is no powerful general forcing it on us today. I think Socrates would drink hemlock all over again if he thought he were in some way responsible for the likes of Alexander. Guilty by association only perhaps. I'll give you the Aristotle connection. By the way Aristotle was a rotten physicist. LOL
I do not like Aristotle and Alexander ... no, I do not.
@prydefoltz,
I can see that.
Boys will be boys.
Pryde, I do not even know where to start. You seem quite down on conquering hordes.:-)
Or ... is it Western Civilization?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I'd be willing to bet that if you took a poll of historians, less than 1% would concur with your assessment of either Alexander The Great or Aristotle.
When reading history, there is always a temptation to view events through a modern lens ... projecting personal moral sensibilities (biases) upon historical figures and events. The problem is that this strips history of its context ... and context is everything. Conditions that we take for granted today, they couldn't have even imagined.
I notice that you're into Eastern Traditions (yes, Pryde, I actually READ your stuff, including the comments and replies). Genghis Khan ... that's as Eastern as it gets. Shall we talk about Mongol brutality? China and Japan ... incredible histories, but a lot of dead bodies too. Right? The "Art of War" (properly translated, The Art of Strategy) is Chinese.
Aristotle ... I'm going to let you spank your own bottom on that one because, knowing your sense of humor, I suspect most of that was joking. Aristotle was brilliant.
I think violent death and rape has always been frowned upon in 'civilized' company. And plenty of historian have looked beyond the 'glorious' retelling associated with the telling of Alexander's tale to reckon the suffering he inflicted. Social history is a pretty big movement these days. History viewed from the point of view of the everyman or woman and not the Nietzsche uberman types.
Count me in with diplomacy and not conquering hordes. Neither a fan of Kubla nor Genghis, Napoleon nor Hitler. Yes, I am fan of eastern philosophy but that being the Tao Te Ching specifically and not the Art of War. You will find Taoist concepts mirrored in the philosophies of most religions, including Christianity and Islam.
I am also quite a fan of Socrates and Kuhn. They both knew that they did not know. Then we can go into the Big E Enlightenment and the likes of Descartes.
Aristotle wasn't all bad. I like a good syllogism as much as the next girl. But he was a misogynist and an elitist and had some outright flawed ideas about how things fell. Plato was also a tad anti-female, but he did ponder some interesting ideas on the metaphysical.
Alexander actions led to the death of approximately 70 000 to 120 000 people. Given the population of the world at that time ... that is significant. Even if you don't see the number as significant in its own right.
No, I do not celebrate or admire bloody ambition. Even if one cleans up after the blood-letting.
This is a great tribute that I would have loved! I taught high school English and History at a Fine Arts School for years and loved every minute of it. I put my heart and soul into every student I ever crossed paths with, and swore to myself that I would quit before I ever became one of those teachers who were simply doing a job. Unfortunately my husband became sick and of course, he became my number one priority, so with heavy heart, took my leave. I am still however, in touch with many of my past students who are now married and having children of their own, and one of my favourite "gifts" is their stories to me now about how I affected their lives...it really is priceless :)
Thank you so much for recognizing those teachers who really do make a difference, because you are sadly correct that most never hear the 'thanks' they deserve. For whatever reason, elementary teachers get a lot of kudos and 'gifts', but by high school, the parents seem to forget about that (not that I ever needed that affirmation :), but it is always nice to hear.
Cheers!
@lynncoyle1,
Thanks for a beautifully crafted comment.
Take a look at my response to @offgridlife ... Middle School killed off all the fun ... they won't let you in the door (at least in Florida) and hence no parent-teacher bonding. Of course, the other thing is that, from Middle School onwards, the kids have 7 different teachers every year, so there isn't the focus on one particular teacher as there is in Elementary School.
Nevertheless, some of my daughter's favorite teachers have been in middle and high school. We refer to them as, "The Greats." She's practically in love (literally) with her current Language Arts teacher (and the feeling is mutual). My daughter laughs, telling me she practically skips on her way to Baressi's class. Baressi is a brass tacks Sargent-Major (Catholic and recently descended from Sicily). No Nancy-Pants stuff in her class ... she makes you EARN IT! Most of the kids love her (a few would like to push her off a bridge). One way or the other, their writing skills have gone through the ceiling. The progress from one week to the next is palpable.
My daughter is in the midst of writing her a Year-End Poem (she still has a few months). She has not asked me for help, other than to explain some of the techniques I use, and why I use them.
She's beginning to worry, though, that two of the other "Greats" will find out, and feel left out, if they don't get a poem too. She queried, "How can I possibly find enough material for THREE poems!?" (My earlier teacher poems were around 20 stanzas apiece - that's a lot of poetry when you've not yet written your first poem. But, if Dad can do it ...).
In any event, Lynn, go pour yourself a glass of wine. Recite "Behind Great Minds" aloud.
This one's to you.
Thank you.
Awww that's awesome! Thank you and Cheers to you as well :)
I love the story of your daughter and her Language Arts teacher, and of course how conscientious she is in writing the poems for all of them, without your help. That makes me smile. I used to have students who were proud to tell me that they would skip out of any other class, but never consider doing that to me. It was a strange position to be put in haha
As an aside, one year, I told my (English class) seniors that they would not be receiving any grades for the first few months. Instead we were going to focus on improving their writing, as opposed to them focusing on their marks. Of course they were horrified and terrified, but that semester, they had the most improvement they had ever noticed in a very short time. It was an interesting snapshot of what I consider, one of the main problems in our education system.
Not sure where that came from, but I just wanted to share it.
I'm going to enjoy my glass of wine now and read some fine poetry by my new friend :)
Cheers!
@lynncoyle1,
Have two.
Done! And your picture made me smile...again :)
Great verse - made me smile. Is that lyrical poetry? It sounded lyrical to me.
Writing a personal poem for a teacher is a fantastic way to thank them.
@nicktravers,
Hi Nick.
Is it Lyrical Poetry? It depends on how precise, or pedantic, you want to be.
The problem is that the definition of "Lyrical Poetry" has changed throughout the Ages. The Greeks invented the term. For them it was a poem written to be sung with a lyre. I do not own a lyre. :-) Generally, Greek lyrical poems were written in the 1st person and expressed personal feelings and emotions. Ancient Greek poetry rarely, if ever, used rhyming, relying instead upon meter as the primary organizational structure of a poem. So by that definition, my poem would not be a lyrical poem.
The Romans copied the Greeks, but stopping the singing and threw out the lyre.
In Medieval Europe, the singing re-appeared but was now accompanied by prancing about, as lyrical poetry came to mean poems that could be sung by troubadours. Rhyme scheme, by this time, had become the dominant ornament of poetry, a feature copied from Arabic poetry. Thematically, lyric poems could be about anything although lovey-dovey courtly love stuff was a genre favorite.
The 20th Century post-modern era (which originated as an expression of far-Left political ideology, essentially Marxism) was not kind to lyrical poetry or classical art in general. Order, form and "a right-way-of-doing-things" became anathema. It all became about experimenting. So, today, if anyone calling himself/herself a poet says it's a poem, it's a poem ... including a single word on a page. Even of it's spelt wrong. Apparently, there's no such thing as bad art. If you think something is bad art, it's just not "accessible to you."
Personally, I beg to differ.
Today, the term "lyrical poetry" seems to be used to describe any poem with a regular meter, rhythm and rhyme scheme ... like the "lyrics" of a song. The subject matter and person-tense don't seem to matter. So, according to modern definition, my poem is a Lyrical Poem - falling under a category of poetry now termed "New Formalism" ... a "newness" that I suspect would surprise the ghosts of Chaucer and Shakespeare. They called it "Verse."
So lets see if I got this right: Lyrical doesn't mean what it used to mean, or what it meant before that, and certainly not what the Greeks meant by the word. So glad I asked!
@nicktravers,
Nick, don't be a smarty pants. Of course ... it's that simple.
You think I didn't know?
But after I'd gotten half way through ... I had sunk costs. I'd invested too much effort to turn back. In for a penny ... :-)
You're a novelist ... don't even try to tell me you haven't done the same. If you do ... I will require the contact information of your editor.
I know exactly what you mean. Your reply was very informative and much appreciated.
This is exactly what Tai Lopez was saying in his 67 steps that I just watched step 3 of. To be great you need to stand on the shoulders of giants. We need to learn from the great business men and entrepreneurs in our field of choice or people like sam walton, Warren Buffet, Bill gates, Darwin, and Charlie Munger! You're a bright individual! May you reach the good life soon:) I loved the post. Short but intellectual.
@saitou,
Thanks for your kind words. I'm not familiar with Tai Lopez but I concur with the rest of those names!