Dear Friends,
I began hosting the KDVS radio show Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour in the year 2000 because I craved even more opportunities to bring together my seemingly separate interests of poetry, the subject of my doctoral dissertation, and instructional technology, a vehicle for keeping current on exciting changes (in communication, innovation, and education) that were sparked by all the energy and software emerging from Silicon Valley.
Last week, at the 30th annual Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology (somehow SITT, which I also host, is even older than my radio show), we took a momentary break from all the substantive and compelling talks by my esteemed faculty to hear “The SITT Poem.” This year the SITT theme was “Reaching Every Learner,” so I also took on that topic in my poem, “Nothing Rhymes with Neutral.” Enjoy.
Nothing Rhymes with Neutral
The inclusive classroom
includes us, too.
With apologies
to that treasure,
our favorite professor
of Plant Pathology,
we may enter
with the sunny point of view,
with the celebratory oratory stories
of a Sara Dye, or,
likely, something darker.
Whether a logician
intoning about protocol,
or a circus barker
mishandling the whiteboard marker,
we are compelled, like a candle, to illume.
We ourselves resemble the room,
never neutral.
In time, we find
that nothing rhymes with neutral.
Every classroom chair can share a story.
Sometimes, cowed, the story whispers its name.
Sometimes it is proudly proclaimed
in the postscript of an overdue essay.
Don’t pass over
the student who hovers
at the door.
Reach out to the holdout.
One student adjusts glasses;
another cups her ear.
Whether the absentee,
or the favorite returner,
when it comes to learners,
each must be reached.
We build slides decks, yes,
but also ladders, ramps,
alternate routes through the thicket
of a perilous syllabus.
Some students seem ready
for the scenic path;
others need a shortcut and a machete.
Everyone needs a map.
A slight smile lifts
when the room’s quietest hand
rises, trembling, yet certain,
and the room tilts to listen
to the unexpected gift,
confidence rebuilt.
Some of us teach inclusively
From the tightrope,
improvisers suited for the high wire.
Others behold their students and light fires:
they deploy student amplifiers,
they hand the chalk to spitfires,
they enlist clarifiers.
Some of us follow trends;
some narrow the scope.
With captions I can read
that the bell tolls also for me.
My fallow mind tumbles
like a kaleidoscope.
In the end, each student,
humble peacemaker or spitfire, requires
a stubborn kind of hope.
A favorite Robert Redford quotation anticipates one of the points of my poem: “I try to avoid giving advice. The only advice I will give is to pay attention. I don’t mean to the screen in your hand. I’m talking about the natural world. I spent a lot of time educating my children about nature by putting them in nature. I said, ‘I want you to listen; I want you to look.’”
With stubborn hope,
Dr. Andy
The weather will be unseasonably hot tonight, so let’s pretend that it’s still summer! I invite you to join the regulars and irregulars outside our favorite brewery tonight for a grand competition featuring 31 questions on a variety of topics you should know something about. Last week we focused on a favorite boxer, while today we will look inward and downward. Today’s pub quiz is a muscular 977 words, if we count the answers.
In addition to topics raised above and below, expect questions tonight on the following: faraway countries, standards, definitions of style, planes, charts, fans, captains, detectives, scholarships, ambitious projects, sultans, American cities, beasts of burden, chases, souls, castles, East Technical High Schools, stages, records, stifled independence, famous criminals, lineages, Harold Bloom pronouncements, 19th century authors, boards, dashed expectations, military victories, mundanities, mates, departments, large voids, rare occupations, solopreneurs, cars, water sports, troubles, desserts, California companies, screens, reckonings, Memphis, the USDA, ducks, genes, royalty, U.S. states, geography, current events, and Shakespeare.
For more Pub Quiz fun, please subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.
Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. We have over 80 Patreon members now, including the new paid subscribers Esther, James, Damian, Jim, and Meebles! Thanks also to new subscribers Prescott, Bill and Diane, Tamara, Megan, Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, The X-Ennial Falcons, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. Maybe next week it will be you! I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, Still Here for the Shakesbeer, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, whose players or substitutes keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of the aforementioned avocado. I appreciate the Mavens’ kind words to me in the newspaper. Thanks in particular to my paid subscribers on Substack. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. Also, I sometimes remember to add an extra hint on Patreon. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
I also want to recognize those who visit my Substack the most often, including Luna, Jean, Ron, Myrna, and Maria, to whom I send sustained compassion. My new paid Substack Subscriber is Anne Da Vigo. Check out her mysteries! Thanks to new subscriber Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas.
P.S. Three questions from last week:
- Current Events – Names in the News. Polly Holliday, who died recently at the age of 88, played a sassy waitress named Flo on what situation comedy TV show?
- Sports. Cartavious Bigsby was recently traded from the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Philadelphia Eagles. By what nickname is Bigsby widely known among NFL fans?
- Shakespeare. In all of Shakespeare, what character most tragically drowns in a stream?
Poetry Night returns on September 18 with John Bell and Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas!