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ORDINARY TEACHERS - A Poem
Posted:
Oct 6, 2000 10:41 AM
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Note: To Mr. Sigmund Boloz, we convey our profound appreciation for
the poem below. We thank Jane Hange and Anthony Cody for bringing it
to our attention.
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From: Sigmund A. Boloz <saboloz@ganado.k12.az.us>
I was asked to write a poem that could be given to teachers during
American Education Week. I hope you'll find it useful. Here goes. My
best, Sig
----------ORDINARY TEACHERS------------
It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher
to dig ever deeper, to live through the difficult, the complex and
the controversial challenges, dilemmas, and frustrations of their
everyday lives
and yet to keep searching.
It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher
to dig ever deeper, to endure the immeasurable inventory of reforms,
the newest fashionable curricula, the broken promises of many
educational solutions, the countless costly silver bullets, the
endless list of easy answers
and yet to keep searching.
It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher
to dig ever deeper, to be pushed to the limit of human endurance
by unimportant and irrelevant workshops,
by information and paperwork overload,
by the flood of tests and standards,
by curriculum committees and team meetings,
by the ever shrinking clock that leaves no time to care
and yet to keep searching.
It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher
to dig ever deeper, to endure the troublesome parents, the troubled
children, To outlast the frustrating days that come too often in the
real world, in real school, in real classrooms
and yet to keep searching.
It takes the courage of an ordinary teacher
to dig ever deeper,
to serve so many masters and yet to strive to be purposeful and thoughtful,
to be excited by change,
to find joy even in the light of one student's eyes and to remember
to pay attention
to the fundamental reason that they went into teaching -- the
students and the learning
and yet to keep searching.
Yes, it takes the courage of an ordinary teacher to dig ever deeper,
the extraordinary courage of an ordinary teacher.
Sigmund A. Boloz (c) 2000
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Sigmund Boloz, since 1980 a principal of Ganado Primary School
located on the Navajo Reservation and the1997 National Distinguished
Principal from Arizona, is also a poet. With 400 of his poems
published to date, you may have seen his work in The Reading Teacher,
Young Children, Language Arts, or Teaching K-8. He shared the
following new creation on a US Department of Education listserv, and
with his permission, it is shared here. Please let us both know where
it goes from here. Thank you.
Jane Hange <hangej@ael.org>
Forwarded by Anthony Cody <codypren@ousd.k12.ca.us>
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--
Jerry P. Becker
Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-4610 USA
Phone: (618) 453-4241 [O]
(618) 457-8903 [H]
Fax: (618) 453-4244
E-mail: jbecker@siu.edu
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