September 2018
NOTE: Public high schools represent one one the last opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds, lives, and interests to get to know one another. As adults we so often self-segregate. High school can feel so vibrant and alive with the mix of students all interacting and learning about each other. Sometimes though, students resist this newness and want to associate and sit with only those they know already. I change my seating chart about every three weeks and my students have come to appreciate the variety of students they sit near and work with.
Why Do We Have to Have a Seating Chart
Because structure breeds creation
because this city is segregated
because you don’t live near her
because she goes to her synagogue once a week
because you don’t speak her language
because poverty speaks its own language
because this may be your last chance
because she smiles when she’s nervous
because she can draw
because she is organized
because she may organize you
because you thought gypsy swing violin
because notes fly free
because notes on a page
because we came from somewhere else
we were down and out
because Hip Hop came from the South Bronx
because we dream
because we rise up
because we sit down
because we take a knee
because we pledge together
we pledge One Nation
© 2018 Sylvia Cavanaugh
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF