An English teacher is a nasty code to break.
Until you know their wants, until you know their style,
their code remains a cryptic one. With crafty guile,
they mask just what they want. Their comments are so vague –
“For next time, work on depth!” – and while I slowly break,
their code’s intact. And all this angry, busy while
(of writing), some elitist few have cracked the style
and never get below a hundred – though I ache!
It takes me ages still to find what teachers want.
And while I search and search, my marks shall mock and taunt.
Destructive, burning wickedly, my hands are hot.
And seething, taking what I wrote – at them I flaunt;
the codes of teachers chip away as them I daunt…
and now I spurn all wicked things that I was taught.
This is kind of a sad aspect of school to me. I suppose it's difficult for teachers NOT to force their personal style onto students but that could easily stunt your creativity.
ReplyDeleteI remember in 6th grade I was having trouble getting good grades in penmanship. My penmanship had been looked upon nicely by other teachers, but not this one. So I checked out what type of penmanship was getting A's and saw it was the "bubble letter" style. So I changed how I wrote, and my grades improved. Mind you, I wasn't writing more neatly, just in a different style.
Not nearly as big of a deal as changing your actual WRITING style...but I look back now and am a little disappointed with how quickly I changed, just to fit my teacher's whims. On the other hand, sometimes grades are a game, and sometimes it's okay to play that game.
(Hey, you popped up at the top of my blog roll as having updated--woo hoo!)
English teachers don't like people who think outside the box, who can take something and interpret it in a way they wouldn't of thought of, describe something in a style that they don't relate to. Writing is often far to subjective to be given a mark out of a hundred.
ReplyDeleteDo you write these sonnets on the spot or do you revise them and work on them for days?
English teachers can't
ReplyDeletebegin to understand your
daily sonnets blog.
Yes, it's Haiku.
- for Beth: Thanks for the encouragement! My current English teacher is such a pain...and yes, I did poorly in penmanship too! Perfect doctor's writing :)
ReplyDelete- for Sandie: My average time is 20 minutes per sonnet. I don't like to revise...but I will have to in order to send them off to a publisher one day!
- for Comedy Goddess: I LOVE the haiku! Ever consider writing 365 of them? :P
I awfully like the sound of "365 Haiku[s]!"
ReplyDelete