Makeshift Education Poem by Adeline Foster

MAKESHIFT EDUCATION

Native Americans of old-
At least in this we have been told-
Would fling their children to the sea
And hope that they would swim and be
As safe on water as on land.

The Greeks- I have heard talk-
Would lay their babes out on a rock
Exposed to cold and then at length
Would hope that chance would give them strength;
For strength alone would stand.

These practices, decried as cruel,
Are nothing to the modern rule
Where babes, who’ve barely learned to speak,
Are wrenched from mother’s arm and cheek
To march abroad, a mottled band,

Exposed to every whim and tool
Of other adults in a school
Which seems to fail consistently
To teach these babes progressively
Yet hope they’ll understand.

Faith is strong in parent’s heart
For children all show at the start
An aptitude which soon will be
Confused and crushed insolvable;
And none of this is planned.

The course of wisdom should be clear
From this, and yet we know and fear
That all will wait and pass the buck
And trust to fate and makeshift luck;
Thus the cycle does expand.