Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School

by Maggie Anderson (Editor), Maggie Anderson (Editor)

Learning by Heart brings together a unique and diverse collection of poems about the experience of school as seen through the eyes of America's best contemporary poets. These poets capture the educational process not only in the classroom but as it takes place in libraries and hallways, on playing fields and at dances. Alternately joyous and defiant, they demonstrate how it is that young people come to find their place in the world. Most of the poems in this anthology were written between 1970 and 1995, a period that encompasses both the halcyon years of poets-in-the-schools programs and the primary and secondary school years of many of the poets included. Their poems define school in that most contemporary sense — “with a multitude of voices”—reflecting perspectives from African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Native American as well as Anglo American backgrounds, from both public and private schools in rural and urban environments. Learning by Heart offers a profound and timely statement about schools and learning as well as the role of art in education. Finally, these poems validate that most important even the most common of experiences is worthy of creative expression.

Genres: Poetry

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Kendall Snee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 2 for Sealy poetry book challenge for all of August.
I wanted to give this a five! Everything about this book I was expected to love, however, there were a handful of poems from male writers wrote totally gross love letters to their former teachers which pissed me right off. One poem went on and on about her long golden hair and how he wished to braid it. I was struck with how horribly crass some of the poems like that were and then I’d flip to a five line him dinger where I felt super seen and my heart hurt all over for what my chosen career path continues to do to young hopefuls. Audre Lorde has an amazing line in here where she says : it deadens us, this career.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard the Billy Collins poem "Schoolsville" from this collection at a recent training and bought the book. Varied selection of poems grouped by categories such as "Homeroom," "Recess," and "After School." Worthy reading to inspire teachers and some tasty poems for discussion with students and to serve as models for writing.

[Gwen Bartlett]

I was disappointed in this book. Being a teacher, I loved school. Most of the poems in this anthology were remembrances of very negative events from school.