Learning Process
When I was a boy
I used to fear
the Soviet Union,
the ruthless system
that enslaved half of Europe
and threatened the world
with nuclear war.
That’s what my teacher said
when she ordered us
under our desks
in an atomic attack.
I went to the library,
read about atomic bombs
and the next time she told us
to hide under our desks
I told her it wouldn’t help
if the bomb went off
because we were too close
to the epicenter.
She got very angry,
said I was ‘disruptive’,
sent me to the principal
who demanded to know
why I wouldn’t obey.
I showed him the diagram
I copied from the book
of atom bomb explosions
and tried to explain
we were much too close
for the desks to protect us
.
He gave me a choice.
Go back to class
and do what I’m told,
or he’d suspend me,
call my parents
(who would punish me
for disturbing them)
and have them discipline me.
So I went back to class
kept my mouth shut,
but learned that school
didn’t know what it was doing.
Author: Gary Beck
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