If you give a kid a window…
They will wonder what’s outside.
They will find that what they seek,
Is not to read,
But to feel alive.
So if you teach a kid to read,
I hope you do it outdoors.
I pray you march them through some grass,
And have them settle on dirt floors.
I trust you’ll teach them with a view…
One so great they might parallel,
The meaning behind your words,
With the secrets the wind may tell.
For if you give a kid a window,
They will see more than you do.
And this is as schooling should be…
And yet is only so for the few.
For when I was a kid in Garland…
I would craft up any excuse,
To leave the confines of my class,
And in a window, find my muse.
I’d feel a swelling in my heart…
As I stared through the thickest glass…
Thinking how free those adults must be.
I know–
I was an ass.
Naomi Samuel 