To give you an example, let’s put our attention on stanza one. This stanza focuses on an Ice Age which appears to have lasted a million years. This is of course a general statement of all the Ice Ages as Earth had five major Ice Ages as well as another dozen little Ice Ages. The poet has deliberately changed the term of Ice Age to Chilly Age, in order to decrease the significance of the period as a whole. The word “chilly” refers to a feeling that is only somewhat cold. Now, why didn’t the poet choose to use words like “cool”, “bleak” or even “cold”? My interpretation is because the word “chilly” has an alliteration link with the word “million” in the same line. The word “sweaters” has also been specifically chosen because the term “sweater” is a term used to cover various types of garments like jumper, pullover and sweatshirt. Just like term chilly, sweaters give the audience the impression that the climate then was just like autumn, where people simply had to put on extra clothing when they were cold.
However, life during any Ice Age was actually very harsh. The “History Teacher” has made the whole era seem like a time that the present generation is experiencing so there’s not much to learn.
The motivation of the “teacher” to create a kinder and gentler generation is good but the fact is that human nature doesn’t change. In Stanza five, the children “would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart, mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses”. The word torment means severe physical or mental suffering which is a strong word used to describe the actions of children. They have learnt how good the past was and are now trying to find something to do. They do not know of the ugly side of humans and through human nature, they would cause harm to others. The “History Teacher” believes that what the children don’t know won’t hurt them but the reality is that it actually does more harm than good.
The “History Teacher” ends his day and gathers his notes and walks home. During his journey, he is already thinking about the lesson ahead, ignorant that the lessons before that were actually of no use.
This proves that even little children are prone to be nasty. The best thing to ensure a kinder, gentler generation is not ignorance but education. The children need to be told exactly what happened like the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War 2 and the consequences that it had. Though it might have been an act of evil, the children nonetheless need to learn about it so that they know that it’s not right to have warfare.
The best way for me to show this is to use a pot of hot water. Let us suppose that there is a pot of boiling water left lying around. Most of you would be told by your frightful and protecting parents that it is dangerous to touch hot water and will do anything to stop you from hurting yourself. If a child touches it, he/she would experience the pain and make note not to touch the pot again.
However, if someone deliberately changed the pot of hot water to warm water every time and told the child that it’s okay to touch hot water, the child would touch it and feel nothing, absently thinking that it is alright to touch hot water. This method would be useful if that ‘someone’ pre-arranged everything in that child’s life. Unfortunately, when the child grows up, he/she will continue to believe that it won’t hurt to touch hot water and will eventually have an accident, but will not know what to do as he/she has no previous experience in it. Similarly, the children in the poem are told that everything in the past was insignificant and there was no serious harm done. The children would grow up believing that and as the saying of George Santayana goes, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
You see, what I glean from the poem is that even though we try to protect our children by glossing over the bad parts of life and hiding behind our picket fences and nice flower beds, they can still fall prey to the darker side of human nature. Despite all our best efforts, they still learn how to beat other kids up, succumb to human impulses, drink or take drugs, and surely often miss the deeper meaning of all the lessons their parents and teachers are trying to impart, at least until they have a little more of their own history behind them.
But, we keep on, and will keep on, trying to protect them from the harsh realities of, among other things, the inevitability of climate change and overzealous religion and nuclear war. After the History Teacher has finished with the day, he doesn’t question whether the children actually learn the moral or the objective of his lessons. Instead, as he walks home, he, like many other parents, are already planning for the future to continue with their protection.
The great thing about history, though, is that, unlike the past, tomorrow is a new day. Its history is as of yet unwritten. There is another opportunity to make our personal histories right; another day to assuage old histories with our children or build new ones. Another day to make our family histories full of humor and laughter, just like The History Teacher.
The character in the second poem echoes what a student of “The History Teacher” would write. The title “The the impotence of proofreading” is not a misprint or typo but proof that the narrator doesn’t understand English and has poor grammar. Taylor Mali is also an American poet so the student may represent the students of America.
This poem focuses on the theme of education, especially the education of the older versus younger generation. The meaning of the poem is very transparent. He chooses words that sound almost 100% the same as the word that should be used and the joke is that even one or two letters difference can make a HUGE difference in meaning. One of the modern problems around the world especially in America is that Americans are getting dumber and “Waiting for Superman”. In the past, people had to learn how to spell and write in proper English. However, with the advancement in technology, people like the character in the poem, rely heavily on equipment and assets like a spell checker to do the work for him/her. The narrator in the poem, just like the children in “The History Teacher”, is stupid and ignorant of the reality.
The poem uses a lot of household names to illustrate how our intelligence is decreasing. Technology is represented by the use of a spell checker which is supposed to allow us to be lazy. The alliteration “sleazy street” is actually an idiom for easy street but in his/her ignorance it becomes sleazy street which refers to “the wrong side of town”, as that’s the place where all of the thugs and gangsters go. The narrator thinks that just because he/she has a spell checker, all of the words will be automatically corrected. This is obviously not true as evident to all of the wrong words used throughout the poem.
Also, the poet had cleverly used a lot of homophones to represent the real words as that’s what a lot of students who have English as a second language do. They try to use the word that sounds like the actual word, hoping in vain that their technological devices will correct them. However, they are ignorant of the fact that unless they have truly learnt the usage of the English language, the spell checker will actually be of no use whatsoever.
The narrator wants to go to an “ivory league college” such as Harvard, Yale or Princeton. The use of jail and prison act as homophones but also they are symbolic of the places that the main character will end up. He/she relies too much on technology but if he/she learns the correct usage of English, Harvard will be the place that he/she ends up. However, the continued reliance on a spell checker will mean that he/she will probably not obtain a decent grade in the future. Without a diploma in anything, the only choice left would most likely be to steal for a living, which in the end will lead him/her to jail or prison.
(Conclusion)
In conclusion, both of the poems effectively show problems affecting modern societies not only in America, but also around the world. People like the “History Teacher” try to sugar coat the past and hope that if the children do not know about it, they will not do it. The person in the second poem hopes to get good grades by relying on technology to solve all of the problems. However, the truth is that one needs to learn and know the facts, and not just believe everything that you are told. You need to become sceptical to a certain extent before you are able to truly understand life and your surroundings.
Poetry is not particularly effective as a shock-treatment compared to the TV, cinemas or even multimedia. However, phrases and words interpenetrate life because they continue to serve some vital need. It is society which supports such needs that requires to change, not the other way around. If poetry is to be largely “a slice of life”, then poetry needs to defend itself against the stronger claims of films and novels. If it is something else, then that purpose needs to be thought through as while poetry can certainly be written without poetry diction, it is immeasurably the poorer of it.
