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by Kate Messner

Write.

But don’t write what they tell you to.
Don’t write formulaic paragraphs
Counting sentences as you go
Three-four-five-Done.
Put your pencil down.

Don’t write to fill in lines.
For a weary scorer earning minimum wage
Handing out points for main ideas
Supported by examples
From the carefully selected text.

Write for yourself.
Write because until you do,
You will never understand
What it is you mean to say
Or who you want to be.
Write because it makes you whole.

And write for the world.
Because your voice is important.
Write because people are hurting
Because animals are dying
Because there is injustice
That will never change if you don’t.
Write because it matters.

And know this.
They’ll tell you it won’t make a difference,
Not to trouble over grownup things,
Just fill in the lines
And leave it at that.
Tell them you know the truth.
That writing is powerful.
Just one voice on the page
Speaks loudly.
And not only can a chorus of those united change the world.
It is the only thing that ever has.

Read.

But don’t read what they tell you to.
Don’t read excerpts, half-poems,
Carefully selected for lexile content,
Or articles written for the sole purpose
Of testing your comprehension.

Don’t read for trinkets,
For pencils or fast food coupons.
Don’t even read for M&M’s.
And don’t read for points.

Read for yourself.
Read because it will show you who you are,
Who you want to be some day,
And who you need to understand.
Read because it will open doors
To college and opportunity, yes,
And better places still…
Doors to barns where pigs and spiders speak,
To lands where anything is possible.
To Hogwarts and Teribithia,
To Narnia and to Hope.

Read for the world.
Read to solve its problems.
Read to separate reality from ranting,
Possibility from false promise.
And leaders from snake oil peddlers.
Read so you can tell the difference.
Because an educated person is so much harder
To enslave.

And know this.
They’ll say they want what’s best for you,
That data doesn’t lie.
Tell them you know the truth.
Ideas can’t be trapped in tiny bubbles.
It’s not about points
On a chart or a test or points anywhere.
And it never will be.

Copyright 2010 ~ Kate Messner
(Poem used with permission of the author. Kate's website is KateMessner.com, and the poem can be found on her blog.)



Nuff said, right? Do what you need to do or are required to do, but don't ever forget what reading and writing workshops are really about.



Jone has the roundup this week at Check it Out. I won't be able to tour the roundup until maybe Sunday, or probably next week, seeing as this is Dublin Literacy Conference weekend. I'll be hanging out with Pete the Cat, Bob Shea, Sharon Draper, James Preller, Donalyn Miller, Ruth Ayres, Bill Kist, Bill Bass and lots of Tweet Peeps, Blog Friends, and Kindred Teaching Spirits.

It is TAKS time in Texas.   

All over the Lone Star State students are being remonstrated, at this very moment, to walk softly, silence their voices in the halls and avoid, at all costs any loud sounds that might disturb the test takers. 

A misplaced whoop in second grade could cause a third grader to startle and snap their no. 2 pencil lead. 

A burst of unwarranted laughter in the kindergarten wing, could cause a fifth grader, debating the best possible answer to a question on  the Science TAKS, to lose focus.  

The day before the tests, they came to the school library in ones or two, then in small groups and finally, three classes at a time (that is 60 kids in the check out line)  to acquire books to read, in case they finish a test before the rest of the class.  

The groups built in size and intensity and frequency,  hitting the library like waves hitting a beach in a storm.  At the campus where I was working, I was buoyed to see great swathes of Andrew Clements books streaming out.  There were runs on Avi novels.  BabyMouse books flew out of the library along with nonfiction books on branches of the military.   To my amazement, tome after tome of the Nancy Drew series were carted away in the hands of fourth graders.

Younger students, who will be exhorted into silence this week, carried out stacks and stacks of Magic Treehouse books and Ron Roy's A-Z Mysteries. 

While the books were being scanned out of the library at the check-out desk,  the excellent library aide moved swiftly around the library covering up any visible words. Posters were rolled up or taken down from the walls.  Signs like "Fiction" and "Magazines" were covered lest they provide some hint to the students who would be testing in the library the next day.  

NSA, FBI, CIA, eat your hearts out. There is no place more secure, than a campus during testing week.  Parents, don't think you can bring lunch to your student this Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  Try as you might, to quote Gandalf, "You shall not pass."

A great deal of sound and fury to prepare for this week. Good luck and a BookMoot salute to  all the students, teachers and principals whose futures hang i

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