pro se (& poetry)

The last in the series of artifacts from Rebecca Commisso is a poem. (See the post from Wednesday, July 17, 2009 to see her brochure and why she is making these things.) :

My final artifact is a reworking of the poem “Don’t dress your cat in an apron” from the book (and album) Free to Be You and Me.

I wanted to include at least one artifact that exemplified the optimism and respect for the rights of young people to make their own choices about how and what they learn. This album always represented that for me, growing up as I did in the 1970s and 1980s.

I am hesitant to criticize the status quo without making a suggestion about how to improve the situation, and while my poem does not actually do that, the spirit of the original poem and book do concur with ways of living and learning with which I agree.

I want to conclude this paper and my artifacts with a look at the more organic, respectful ways of learning explored in articles about learning circles and the attributes of democratic versus hegemonic learning. I believe that it is possible for learning to occur in a way that allows even the very young to direct how they learn, and to respect the gifts we all bring from our families and backgrounds. The school system might be too big to accommodate these respectful ways of teaching, but as individual educators, and as learners, I think we can use the ideas of this course and a trust in our own intuition to help us find space for new ways of learning and teaching.

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The Poem (mine)

Don’t make your kid do equations
‘Cause you want him to be an MD

Don’t think your kid isn’t brilliant
Just because she can’t stand history

Don’t ignore what your kids are quite good at
While wondering why they won’t learn

Useless crap that they just can’t make sense of
‘Cause you said it would help them to earn

A person should learn what he wants to
And not just what other folks say

A person should learn what she likes to
A person’s a person that way

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The original poem

Don’t Dress Your Cat in an Apron
By Dan Greenburg

Don’t dress your cat in an apron
Just ‘cause he’s learning to bake.

Don’t put your horse in a nightgown
Just ‘cause he can’t stay awake.

Don’t dress your snake in a muu-muu
Just ‘cause he’s off on a cruise.

Don’t dress your whale in galoshes
If she really prefers overshoes.

A person should wear what he wants to
And not just what other folks say.

A person should do what she likes to-
A person’s a person that way.

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