Things are getting back to normal in Tuscaloosa now. School has started, the quad is packed and the kickoff to College Football is only 8 days away. It's hard not to be excited.
However, I had a bit of a depressing moment yesterday in my 20th Century Poetry class. My professor, a Dr. Heather White, was introducing us to the course material, all contained in the behemoth-sized Norton Anthology of Poetry.
The reading load is quite heavy and by way of warning she described the first few weeks as an upward march, in which we will be plowing through some very tricky pieces and are bound at some point to tire and want to give up. At this point she began to get into the disparaging fact that poetry is somewhat a dying art and it is in classes like this that it is on "life support."
It is no hidden truth that most who end up studying poetry, whether it is in a high school class or simply stumbling upon a piece in a magazine are forced into the situation. People read poems, don't understand them and decide that anymore of that is a very tedious waste of their time. Why read if not to understand?
However, Dr. White brought a little bit of hope into the discussion by explaining that poetry, like anything worth its existence, must be worked for. You must learn how to read it, appreciate its rules and write it yourself to appreciate the beautiful tangles of yarn that masters like Wordsworth and Coleridge have left for us to untangle.
She said not doing these things now will mean missing out on something very special.
"It's not that you won't have to do these this after you graduate. It's the fact that you may not have the chance to," she said.
And all at once, I was frightened and overjoyed.
But it makes me ask the question why aren't more teachers addressing this issue in the same way? It is simply this: those same teacher don't like poetry either.
Here at UA, your first creative writing course is EN200, which requires a section taught on poetry, a section taught on screen writing and section taught on poetry. I can't tell you how many creative writing teachers I have come into contact with here who "don't get" poetry and put very little effort into teaching it to their intro classes. It's sad that the only appreciated form any more is prose.
Or is that the case? Where is this going and what is the problem? Let me know how you feel.
Cheers
3 comments:
The language arts face a continual uphill battle in a society of pragmatism. And poetry is the first soldier to go down in this fight. It is just soooooo impractical. The time it takes. The decoding. The effect even: you really don't "learn" as much as you "feel" and are "awakened." Feelings, revelations, etc. are low currency in schools . . . where the axis of education turns on grades, degrees, and ultimately THE good job.
Great post Wayne. You got me on my soapbox!
ryc (reply to your comment) - On the Ron Paul note, do you plan on writing him in in November, or have you done much research on Bob Barr? He is the Libertarian party's nominee for 2008. This is his youtube channel if you were not already aware of it.
Yeah, i think its absurd to expect students to criticize poetry without writing it. No wander people don't "get it". Poetry is action. Its something you do. You can't possibly understand it without doing it.
Dude, how have you been? I haven't seen you in forever. What are your plans these days?
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