Student-Poet Delivers Clarion Call on Education
Hoover senior Susan Stacy (left) speaking at the Iowa State Capitol on Wednesday.
Throughout the day on Wednesday, Des Moines Public Schools was well-represented at the Iowa State Capitol, advocating that the legislature properly fund and support public education in our state.
In the morning, elementary students greeted legislators, talking with many of them about their schools and holding signs that said things such as “I’m not asking for a lot, I’m asking for enough.” Later in the day, the Superintendent, School Board members, teachers and dozens of high school students worked the Capitol rotunda, finding as many legislators as they could to make the case that, if state leaders are serious about Iowa being number one in education they must invest to make it come true.
Of all of the many strong and clear voices, perhaps none was stronger and clearer than that of Susan Stacy. The Hoover senior, who will be attending Cornell College next year, also takes classes at Central Campus and Central Academy, and is very involved in choir and creative writing. She is also active in Movement 515, and is an award-winning poet. During a gather in a Capitol hearing room, she read her work “Emergency Response,” a clarion call about the importance of education and the need for everyone to do better. When she was done, even the legislators in the room were giving her snaps.
We’re pleased to reprint Susan’s poem below, and share a video of her reading at the Iowa State Capitol.
Emergency Response
by Susan Stacy
*Intercom crackles* Attention.
May I have your attention please.
I am initiating an emergency response procedure.
This is not a drill – repeat, this is not a drill.
No Child Left Behind has corrupted academic institutions since 2001
If you are receiving this announcement that means the damage is already done.
It’s in your classrooms. It’s in your curriculum. It’s come for your children,
Posed as a “great concept,” guised in “good intentions,”
No Child Left Behind is no more than a euphemism
And every September we fall for it like leaves.
The number of graduates is dropping in degrees.
The number of cold seats increases every time a bell rings.
We are throwing our money away along with our school lunches,
I say I want my lunch money back. I want the education I was promised.
No Child Left Behind, you are an incompetent parent.
Your children expect the alphabet, you give them the letters A through F.
Your children expect to be prepared for college, you prepare them for a test.
You leave them behind altogether if they can’t bubble-in the blanks you left.
When these students don’t graduate, you dust your hands of your mistakes like chalk,
You sweep each drop-out’s pencil shavings from their desks then under the rug.
No Child Left Behind asks teachers to insure their school’s income
Rather than the livelihoods of their students.
To the teacher who assumes this role without hesitation,
I pose this question: if you are not here for the children, who are you here for?
Twice a week, I am an elementary school teacher.
By the end of my first day,
I could list the students standardized education was going to ruin
I could write their names on the board, and when multiple choice assessments determine they aren’t thinking critically, we erase them.
We erase from our memories the number of times they raised their hands in class,
The number of times they asked questions, challenged convention, asking
“Why do we need to know this?”
“How can I show you everything I’ve learned in 45 minutes?”
How many students like Jeff Bliss is it going to take
Until we secure the kids “who don’t learn like that”?
How long until we secure enough teachers’ positions
To adopt the millions of youth No Child Left Behind abandons?
How long will it be until we stop teaching to the test,
Until we realize the best lessons in life are our experiences.
We need to be the teachers we always wanted
If we want what’s best for our kids.
Teaching is a full time position.
Coming to school in the morning should be like coming home
Because your responsibilities are the same in either place.
When you leave the house, you are a parent.
When you come to class, you are still a parent.
That’s why it’s called homework.
The apple waiting on your desk should look no different from the one on your countertop.
The children seated cross-legged on the floor should remind you of your own.
Teach your students the same lessons you teach your children.
To listen when another person is speaking,
To share their belongings with those in need,
That they are more than the numbers their tests say they are.
As the adult in the room, do you model these virtues
Or withhold the keys to success from the hands of children
The way No Child Left Behind expects you to?
If you do, I hope your students surpass your expectations
I hope your students come from behind,
And cross the stage at graduation like a finish line without you.
I hope they hear this announcement, 13 years overdue,
And respond accordingly.
*Intercom crackles* This concludes today’s announcements.
