Day 9: Learning My Students' Names

By: Randy Koch
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 6, No. 2
Date: March-April 2001

Summary: Poetry from Randy Koch, a teacher-consultant from the South Texas Writing Project in Laredo, Texas.

I sometimes feel like Adam naming all
the animals or a cartographer
plotting points by face or stature rather
than by ascension or declination. Roll
call in each class, like today—with rainfall
beyond the door—gradually gets easier,
and now I know last row left is Peter,
front center is Esmy, back center Raul,
and Cy, like Eden's central apple tree,
in the middle of the room. But when they
move beyond this English garden and roam
from fine arts class to anthropology,
and our paths cross, I often cannot say
their names till later over apple pie at home.

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