The Switch

 

 

Such an interesting word

And so intriguing to me,

In the next few verses of this poem

The reason you will see.

 

Change over or exchange

Interchange, trade or swop,

Abandon or leave for another

Or just simply channel-hop.

 

Flog as with a rod:

Could be either verb or noun,

Once thought to make children learn,

Today it’s causing a frown.

 

The completion of a circuit

As of the electrical type,

Or the outcome of a local election

As in a thirty-love hype.

 

So much for the meanings

Now on to the purpose

Meaning that of a topical matter

That concerns all of us.

 

It’s about education reform

And its affiliation to the switch:

Two meanings come to mind,

Simply follow my pitch.

 

Back in the twentieth century

And into the twenty-first,

The rod which motivated learning

Some thought to be a curse.

 

The ears of a child

Were thought to be in his back,

Beat the child, one thought,

And learning would be a fact.

 

So, beat them for schoolwork

And for bad behaviour too,

Weal up their backs

And buttocks black and blue.

 

 

 

Thus, the ancient switch,

Used in the old education approach

Employed with bright children

As well as the ones that groped.

 

Education reform demands

That we locate the other switch:

The switch that’s in every child

Especially the ones we ditch.

 

The aha or the Eureka

Meaning Oh yes! Now I see it,

So that for all of our children

Learning becomes a habit.

 

Not the negative learning

Like falling through the cracks

But of positive reinforcement

Unlike the beating of one’s back.

 

 

 

Locating the God-given switch

That turns on to their talent

And gives meaning to schooling

That provides meaningful balance.

 

That psychological switch

That shows how he or she learns

Rather than leaving them behind

Like garbage to be burned.

 

Being true to the tenets

That buttress education endeavor:

Every child at his own rate

As learning changes behavior.

 

The switch that says I am ready

To learn in the way that I can,

I am different from the other pupils

Requiring a different plan.

 

Not a totally different plan

But with modification of sorts,

I too yearn to be accommodated-

Please do not abort!

 

 

Not the switch that flails the air

But the one that turns me on,

Find it and get me going, please

Before all opportunity is gone.

 

Stewart Russell © August 30, 2022