How do I get them to write poems?

Teachers inevitably ask themselves, thinking about children’s writing, ‘How do poems get written?’ This question is often taken to mean, ‘How do I get them to write poems?’ – with an implicit ‘tell me’ or at least ‘advise me’. The teacher’s intellectual disenfranchisement in consequence of the way schools have been written about in academic literature has resulted in her assuming that academic or serious knowledge about the classroom is produced by non-teachers. The poem presents the same kind of difficulties as the previous one, and some extra ones to do with what seems to be the artistic – it is tempting to say unconsciously artistic – shaping of experience. The issue of the relative ‘contributions’ of pupil and teacher to the writing of children’s poems is as crucial as it is fascinating. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.