Apr 20, 2012

All Our Best Teachers

I was listening to the Hold Steady this morning and there is a line in the song Constructive Summer where he Craig Finn sings, "Let's raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer.  I think he might have been our only greatest teacher."

Got me thinking about teachers.  So here's some thoughts I rattled off trying to kick a writer's block.
Read it while listening to this:



All our best teachers wrote teenage poetry
And listened to punk rock or the Smiths or something
That should’ve brought us all together.
Knowing glances at our mohawks, and band t-shirts
And feeble attempts to stick it to our parents,
Knowing glances, that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Now I’m older than most of the bands,
And I’m always surprised when I hear about my friends being
Teachers.
And even more surprised that they’ve been doing it
For 5 years. 
I’m a bit jealous of their impact. 
I hope that someday, my kid gets pissed
At some system in the cafeteria,
And thinks it is the biggest injustice ever perpetrated,
And there are people there, to temper and encourage,
While humming that first Green Day song they ever heard
And grading papers with black coffee.