A thought provoking write. So much I could write about my opinions about teachers who float lies among the truths they teach to impressionable minds... and so much I could write about my opinions of the minions who don't appreciate the gift of an education, on any level, and who don't try to decipher the lies from the truths that pervade our school systems and lives...

Cryssa

Isn't it sad that of all the teachers we have had, we are lucky
to recall only a few? And, sadly, it obviously wasn't entirely the fault of the teachers. Thanks, Axilea, for the reminder. -gene.

you keep raising your own bar higher,with each new write

As a teacher of adults I need to be periodically reminded of the responsibilities and intensities attached to the knowledge exchange contract - though modern society would make of it workaday time the ancient 'teacher/pupil' exchange is so much more than that - especially I think in the arts. This poem reminds me to always feel privileged, attentive, aware, animated when teaching ... otherwise we risk the 'dead fish' syndrome alluded to in the poem!

Oh, I love how this is titled! I love that a positive and a negative are both embodied in that letter T, and a new way of looking at that-- the horizontal, and what lies between, dividing.

This fairly breathes of ambiguity, a feeling well-known to all of us once-upon-a-time students in just such a setting. But it also speaks to me as "the teacher" -- what is seen through the students' eyes, but more than that, the barriers needing to be hurdled, the minds needing to be opened like the eyes... A teacher is, in the beginning no more than a negative, a horizontal slash, and whether or not that minus is crossed vertically is essentially up to each student.

Lots of great lines in this. A very thought-provoking and visual write. --Charlie

As always, Axilea, your work provokes much thought.

"Lies and truth", "all that did not happen," "forgetters of all that wasn't said."
What is taught and what is learned here? An easy question for the earthquake to answer.
This is a very thought provoking tale. I just love it. Thanks Axilea

...it's that word 'horizontal' that grabs me, all's pre-Magellan, pre-Copernican flat, and then in between there is a 'vertical' the individual within us, the thinker thinking for him/herself; is T___
for the the Tedium and Trite of our learning environments and their staff?
Strong, ever so worthwhile work, Axilea

John

The teacher can mean many things and in some places like the Los Angeles school district this speaks volumes. Most often future forgetters fail to listen at all, and maybe understandably so. Great work. Patrick

I had to think about this before leaving a comment. But what this poem says to me is that teachers have lost their purpose to actually educate and impart the ability of critical thinking to their students. Now they stand there and spew federally-mandated names, numbers, dates and words meant to be swallowed and regurgitated and soon forgotten, all for the sake of creating left-brain automatons capable of nothing more or less than flicking switches and following orders. The title is very clever because it would suggest "The Teacher" as the heading but is left incomplete as teacher may not be the appropriate word to describe this sort of creature. To be left to the mind of the reader to decide. Excellent writing.

This says so much! It brings me back to my high school days - to when I day-dreamed and wrote while the teacher spoke. . .

Very good work, Axilea