The 800 Pound Gorilla Question in Education
In exploring a little of the worlds of Gibbon and Freeman last night
I think Al Evans (my old civics teacher) would be pleased to know
His only so-so student had persevered
And helped to write a little history
At Camp Rissington before it came to San Antonio.
My great teachers ignited a hunger
Far more than force feeding me to pass New York's tests.
The first issue in educational process
Is far more than asking good teachers to split their vision
Between a manditory standard and what they truly want to teach.
In looking at the calculus of education we frequently ignore
The eight hundred pound gorilla question in education:
Does the student want to learn?
poem by Bill Grace
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The Chocolate and Vanilla of Courage
There is the courage of the body of which I have read
or heard the stories of the elders of my tribe
Roy Benavidez spitting in the medics face
to communicate he was alive - half dead.
John Levitow passed out on the ramp of Spooky 71.
Dave Carter giving a kidney to help a co-worker live.
William Graves refusing medical aid.
'Four Chaplains' who I will only meet in heaven.
Yet, on my quiet porch the other courage haunts me.
Steve Stalonas refusing my brainless adulation.
Henry Nixon calling the bigotry of his superiors.
In history George Marshall wisking away a President's favor
at risk to self.
With age I know very little but I am certain that
Courage comes in at least two flavors
Both are ice cream.
poem by Bill Grace
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Daniel In The Diner's Den
Across our chasms we met
His arms covered with tattoos
My arms Anglo white - needle untouched,
As we warmed he told of early years in an institution
Where his words had moved all the girls to tears
He said it changed his life -
This realization that words could count.
I presumed to play the mentor.
He accepted the role as student.
'Who do you think is our greatest poet? '
He granted the grace for me to think.
After a while I reminded him Homer was a poet.
Then I sliced this Gordian Knot with the dated name
Of Louis Untermeyer's great anthology fame.
All of this as he played fuhrer to the menu
and jockeyed servings for four.
'Poets stick together! '
Skin and sex and a million other variables
Are best excluded from this formula.
poem by Bill Grace
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Watching Washington Work
In the early days of convinced student ambition
I watched Washington work where even the press didn't care
The Special Subcommitte on Student Unrest to be exact the
Honorable Edith Green - Chair.
I recall the specific names and faces and antics and lack the courage to tell you what truly went on.
Strangely I loved the representative from Alaska most, who later was killed in a plane crash running for the Senate their bodies never recovered, and a representative from New York City least - who wanted to be President.
The Alaskan was a man strangely full and the New Yorker strangely hollow but this is my theological judgement.
What could a student possibly know who once wanted to be President himself and lacks even today the courage to tell you how that little piece
of Washington worked?
poem by Bill Grace
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God's Sense of Humor
God has a sense of humor and
If you have time I have a tale.
In military basic training land
The youngsters - not always young -
Always come to chapel..
It is the only place where they are free
Loosed temporarily from the fetters of their captivity.
Basic is a place of pressure and of pain
Access to the military a goal to be gained.
The process lasts about twelve weeks
Twelve being the number choosen by our greatest teacher.
One Christmas eve with help from wife
Her intent being to help ease my preaching strife
A great sermon was spoken to the uniformed throng
Their attentiveness told me absolutely nothing was wrong.
A great sermon preached to a sea of faces
A little less pain in one of God's strange places.
[...] Read more
poem by Bill Grace
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Poem of Pure Autobiography
Mother was Presbyterian and Dad Roman Catholic
It took them a silver anniversary to truly bridge the gulf
And I about as long to find my way
With help from Quakers and Unitarians and other
Strange creatures of the light.
Princeton all but bluntly told me that my type was not welcome
And Chicago was offended at chapbook publishing that spoofed at Shelly
But Berkeley welcomed me
And much to Mother's dismay I said 'yes'
Not knowing what yes could mean
But desperate for heavier credentials.
Harvard even dimly figures in
For all my friends were going not to Harvard
But to its antitheses established in the great fight
That split New England congregationalism
And gave the word - Unitarian - to us as a term of derision.
Even Andover-Newton was not right
I tried it for three full days
[...] Read more
poem by Bill Grace
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Tale of a Once Upon a Time Christmas Gift for Me from the Deity
God has a sense of humor and
If you have time I have a tale.
In military basic training land
The youngsters - not always young - always come to chapel.
It is the only place where they are free
Loosed temporarily from the fetters of their captivity
It is a place of pressure and of pain
This military basic training lane
Access to the military the goal to be gained.
The process lasts about twelve weeks
Twelve being the number choosen by our greatest teacher.
On Christmas Eve with help from wife
Her intent being to help ease my preaching strife
A great sermon was spoken to the uniformed throng
Their attentiveness told me absolutely nothing was wrong
A great sermon preached to a sea of faces
A little less pain in one of God's strange places.
But the best was yet to be
[...] Read more
poem by Bill Grace
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