"Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace." – UNESCO.
World Poetry Day honours poets, promotes reading, writing, and learning poetry, and fosters the convergence between poetry and other arts. At DSB1, poetry is woven into student learning across classes.
One example of learning through poetry is from Timmins High and Vocational School, where students in Jennifer Henderson's Grade 11 World Views and Aspirations of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Communities in Canada study the poetic expression of Canadian writer Thomas King through viewing a video of the author reciting his poem. The engaging video features background images which add to the depth of the content, giving students a visual while listening to the words.
Students referenced a written copy of the poem and answered reflection questions surrounding the themes of stereotypes, the harm they can cause, and the author's main message in the poem.
As a class, students discussed aloud why Thomas King repeated, "I'm not the Indian you had in mind," throughout the poem. Students' responses indicated their understanding: all people who identify as Indigenous do not look a certain way, act all the same way, or fit a certain mould. Individuals who identify as Indigenous come from different backgrounds and have different lived experiences. Therefore, students recognized that classifying individuals who identify as Indigenous as all the same further perpetuates stereotypes.
On this World Poetry Day, click here to view the video of Thomas King's poem, "I'm Not the Indian You Had in Mind".