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Just an old sailor in his rowboat bobbing,
a mere cork on this great ocean,
where muscular currents send me skittering
along a rising swell of new research
on "How to Get Fish to Bite,"
then across a riptide of curricular reports,
endlessly revised, and onward
through the dense fog of this year's latest ideas
that simply can't miss, a whole new
language, when all I know is simple words
like "hook" and "sinker."
Now caught in this storm, my own little boat
heaving wildly to starboard, then port,
buffeted by fresh gusts from the State House,
still more great ideas, that threaten
to capsize me entirely with the hurricane
force of good intentions.
I am taking water! Bail! Bail!
Content, Process, Pedagogy, Tracking, Empowerment, Portfolios,
Accountability, Assessments, Black Achievement, Standardized Testing,
Certification, Re-Certification, Individualization, Curriculum Frameworks,
Outcomes, Early Admission, Longer Days, Longer Classes, Longer Years,
Fifty Minutes, Eighty Minutes, Five and One-Half Hours, Twenty-Four Hours.
The waves strike unceasingly on
the beaten shore, and what do I know,
just a poor sailor searching
for time to mend his nets,
to catch a few fish, to find
a small corner of the ocean, placid like
a lake, or a pond no larger
than a classroom.
March 1994