Ideal Student- an art work by T Newfields

Ideal Students


Ideal students
don't need heads –
just attractive bodies
that are easily led

Ideal students
don't need to speak -
just repeat as requested
and deferentially heed

Ideal students
avoid independent thought –
mouthing desired rhetoric
fearing deviancy will be caught

Ideal students make excellent
soldiers, factory workers, civil servants
& faithful spouses

There's simply one problem:
behind their well-polished glasses
& cleanly-scrubbed ears
part of them
is rambunctious
inquisitive
&
determined
to learn here
last index next
Sound File Hear the author read this poem. Sound File
[***K /.OGG file]
Copyright (c) 2006, 2009 by T Newfields. All rights reserved.
www.tnewfields.info/CrassroomVoices/ideal.htm
Online Art
- 27 -
Satoru: Aren't we talking about fearful or apathetic students rather than ideal ones?
Tim: I dunno. I just wrote the poem – that doesn't mean I understand it.
Melissa: If we invert this poem, the message is clear. Ideal students are inquisitive non-conformists, right?
Liao: Why do we need this notion of "ideal"? Is that concept even necessary?
Too often our thinking gets in the way of perceiving. Why not look
at others without even considering whether or not the fit some ideal standard?
Melissa: Hmm. That's one way of viewing the world. However, I'm almost always measuring 'n calculating.