Classroom Chronicles
To Teach or Not to Teach — that is the question.
A Poem (based on Hamlet’s Soliloquy)
To teach or not to teach — that is the question
Whether to continue to suffer the slings & arrows
of ignorance or lose a modest fortune
To sleep in — that is the dream, but the alarm sounds
& teachers go travel through the halls of schools
as if in an academic wasteland — Ah! There’s the rub
This waking nightmare awaits us each & every day,
we swear to do better, but our plans go astray,
we are all but players walking across a stage -
the classroom, where we hide our feelings
behind a mask of happiness & hope only to be
met by daggers poised at our hearts, gnashing
& slashing our lessons, pushing us away from
teaching, we sit & think of balmy days, the days
of summer, where the sky was blue & the air
free of the screams of students in the hallways,
swearing at each other & at us, not doing
their lessons, ignoring the rules, glued
to the ghosts of technology’s past, their
cell phones are but shackles to cloud
their minds & prevent pure thoughts
from entering, we pray that we do
the deed of teaching, it is an honor,
but teachers receive no praise,
only disregard, and so, we hang
our heads & bring assignments home,
to review in the shadows
of the evening light
