Written by Harris Tobias
Education and teachers leave a lasting impression many of us.
'School charms me'
Gulliver among the little folk
Among the still forming inheritors of the world
How will I save them from the errors of their fathers?
Who saved me?
What debt do I owe them
Ramon, Ricky, Lily
What business is it of mine if they succeed or not
They’ll outlive me
and spend their days far from my influence.
But they are really the teachers
Peanuts, Irma, Paul
They fill me with their childish ways
And force me to recall
The dingy schools and wicked twisting
of the days when I was twelve.
Harris Tobias, 2021
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Image credit: Classroom (verso), Heinz Koppel (1919–1980), Leicester Museum & Art Gallery