I couldn’t agree more
This is somewhat in response to Bhavin’s last post, but it also happens to be what I have been thinking a lot about lately after having taught poetry to a wide range of kids over the past month or so. The kids may not have done exactly what I was expecting them to do (which is probably a good thing), but even if their writing didn’t improve in the ways that I wanted to see in a week, they were exposed to different poets and they took time to work on their writing. I realize that it probably sounds mean to say that the students didn’t improve in the ways that I expected because it sounds like they didn’t improve–which wasn’t the case. Every student came into the programs that I’ve been working with with different starting points, and everyone improved their writing and reading skills, even if in a small way. That small way, though, may be larger than I was able to see in their writing. And it’s probably in a way that I never could have predicted, and that’s a good thing.