Making Trouble

I thought I'd better post here before my few readers decided that I'd been captured by the aliens or something. I just haven't had much to say lately, at least on my blog. Yesterday I started a "tempest in a teapot" so to speak, on the poetry website that I frequent by suggesting that some of the newbies were treated badly by the veteran members of the site. It went well for the most part (other than the fact that many of the responses that I received went along the lines of "you are entitled to your wrong opinion), but there was one response that really irritated me.

One individual suggested that much of the problem with education these days is that teachers, parents, etc. are so afraid to damage a child's self-esteem that they don't set boundaries or expectations of them. I replied that I am certainly not someone who believes in saving a child's (or an adult's) self-esteem at the expense of learning, or the truth. I also mentioned that my viewpoint may be a bit skewed because of my experiences working with Native American people, many of whom had either been forced to go to U.S. sponsored boarding schools. I also mentioned that my view was similarly affected by the number of people who I have worked with who live in abject poverty, and that the "cycle of poverty" is much more than a cliche: if the parents don't care about learning, the child already has an uphill battle, so to speak. Sheesh, I can't keep cliches out of my post...oh, well, it's early.

Anyway, this poster replied that he didn't see what Native American boarding schools had to do with posting on a poetry board. Now, I am wondering what part of "my viewpoint may be skewed by my experiences" she didn't understand. I just replied that I was sorry, I must not be expressing myself correctly, and left it at that.

But all in all, it was a disappointing experience. I really don't think learning has to be made painful and I don't believe that beginners should be ridiculed for their attempts at poetry--it's hard enough to find that the poem that has been hanging on Uncle Joe and Aunt May's refrigerator is actually without literary merit. I did have a couple of people send me private messages indicating that they thought I was correct in my opinion. They didn't post this publicly. I guess they didn't want to get into "trouble," something that I just don't have any fears about, expecially when it comes to advocating for people who I think are being treated unfairly.

Certainly in the scheme of things, people who (in my opinion) misbehave on a poetry board are not going to end the world. But I just wish some of the people there would treat newcomers with a bit more tact. And anyone who has seen me deal with a situation in which I think a patient is not being treated well knows that I have no fear of letting my voice be heard. Well, that's about it for now, I have to get ready to go to work--it snowed last night, which means that the drivers in my corner of the world will be driving like fools. :)