SPLAB!
Auburn, WA
To Whom It May Concern:
Paul Nelson created the best lesson my students have
experienced this year. He brought two poets to school who
competed in a poetry bout in front of a group of three hundred teenagers here
at
The whole thing was electric. There were no grades
to motivate the students, but they listened with intensity and respect to each
participant’s poetry. Afterward many students came up to me individually to
tell me that the experience had been motivating and inspiring. Several students
have shown me poems they wrote last night on their own after the bout.
One
of my students, Kellee Captain, talked about how she
cried after Brian Byersdorf’s first poem. She said the
readings were really fun; in fact, she said she would like to do it every month
or at least every quarter. It would motivate her, she said, to write more. Another
student, Kevin Radley, said it was cool. He said that it really made you look
at different perspectives. Erin Horvath, a senior, said poetry allows you to
open up your mind rather than a text book. She said it was intriguing. When I
asked my classes, everyone agreed that the whole process had been exciting and
worth while. I have not seen my students so enthusiastic all year.
Having
Aundria and David read poetry that clearly affected
them deeply helped students truly appreciate poetry. Something Advance Placement
studies too easily ignores is that poetry is so much more than the
identification of metaphor, imagery and point of view. It is creativity inside
the awareness of our weaknesses and our dreams. It is the tension between our
sense of fate and destiny – it is words taking us beyond words – beyond space
and time. My students today understand this now (on a level I can’t describe)
because of your work.
If
any other teachers are considering contacting Paul Nelson as a way of bringing
poetry alive for students, I encourage them to do so. His work is appropriate
and it is magical. He made the lesson a great success.
Sincerely
yours
Brian
Schuessler