Schechter

=‘SO, DID THEY HAPPEN TO MENTION…?’=

**by Bill Schechter**
They say that the tests scores are too low, //Did they mention my students are hungry?// that the school is underperforming and must be //Did they say many have no fathers at home.//

“turned around,” that all the teachers must be //that few parents will attend// turned out, fired, or reapply, though //Open School Night because of that// only some will be rehired. Administrators //second job, or no job, and that// who have long forgotten what a //our phone calls rarely get answered? Oh,// classroom looks like say we teachers //did the President happen to mention the drugs,// do not care enough (that I did not care), //the poverty, the gangs, the 25 students murdered//

that we whine and make excuses, because //in Chicago this year? Did//

we are in it only for the money, //someone perchance recall we didn’t just stay//

or that we are incompetent. Some //for a year or two to burnish our resumes for Wall//

even call us racists and union hacks, //Street, but made a commitment to kids, to classrooms,//

and so good riddance to bad rubbish. And //in fact pledged our lives to them, for whom we// they claim Charters can do a better job, without //stole time from our own families, long evenings,// bothersome unions and crazy pay scales, //grading, preparing, plotting that they too might hope,//

that test prep can better proceed unimpeded, when all //dream, smile, eat, learn, whom we not only tested//

members of the “team” are stuck on the same //but hugged, or provided a shoulder to cry//

dreary page, paid piecemeal, per test score, to //on (as required) or loaned money to, or went over an//

facilitate (what’s called) “accountability,” so that the //assignment –was it for the 5th time?– because of illness, or absence or// kids don’t get sidetracked by music-art-drama- //language, or no textbook, or…or… or. Did// field trips-laughter or creative lessons //that phantom principal, office-dwelling total stranger,//

that might take too long to think about, and //even know I was proud to be a teacher, that I gave// can even launch unintended flights of fancy, //my all, for 5-10-20-30 years, with no ambition// or burn up way too much time by //beyond these children, no desire to shuffle paper,// requiring actual real-life participation in //to hoard data, no desire to standardize souls,// ExperimentsdDebatesSimulationsDiscussions, //but only to help children grow, to enlarge spirits,// after all, there is serious business to be done, //stretch minds against all the odds// I mean the business of education, //never mentioned in polite company.// which the businessmen will show us //The bell has rung. School is out.//

how to do. So, time now for the new team

//We are out.// to get down to the grim //So, tell me,// task at hand. //what’s in?//