The cramped classroom
can barely accommodate
forty-seven students.
It is smothering stuffy,
but of course it has windows!
Their grills look like the bars of a jail.
In the confines of jail,
in the cramped classroom,
we grudgingly open the windows
of tolerance. We have to accommodate
every unreasonably stuffy
teacher with 'respect', like good students.
Like good students
we adapt to jail.
We don't complain about stuffy
air or the shoe-box like classroom;
it can at least accommodate
forty seven. It also has windows.
At least it has windows!
Grateful are we students
to the sarkari* circus for accommodating
windows in the grand jail
drama. They're needed or else the classroom
will become deadly stuffy.
Our minds have become stuffy
and unimaginative. The windows
let in minimal knowledge but the classroom's
walls need to be broken down. We, students,
should break free from jail in jail.
We should not just 'accommodate'
We should not just accommodate
formidable knowledge in the stuffy
confines of the mind. In jail,
knowledge is useless. The window
lets in facts but what goes in should go out. We students
know all about ventilation: it's lacking in the classroom.
In jail, we just accommodate
stuffy classroom facts.
Students can only look longingly out of windows.
*Sarkari- of the government in Hindi.
I love what you did with the idea of 'window.' I think most students think of school as 'jail' on occasion. You really have portrayed the stuffy atmosphere here, the need for ventilation, the longing for something more!
ReplyDeleteYes! I completely agree with the sentiment and it was written well also.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is something you feel very strongly about, but if so you should check out Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. It's all about problems and issues with the traditional educational model.
great imagery - a weel written poem
ReplyDeletethat is a tough school...ouch
ReplyDeletesmart words.
ReplyDeletetouch school in that circumstances indeed.