"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history." -Plato

I recently discovered in a conversation with my junior high sister that poetry is "boring" -- I found this not entirely surprising but distressing in the extreme. I had the same English teacher in junior high as she does now, and his teaching methods leave something to be desired, and the poems he teaches even more so. Unfortunately, the same could be said for English teachers across the country. Rudyard Kipling's "If" may espouse cardinal virtues, but as a poem it hardly suffices. Junior high students detest sermons in the classroom, and by teaching poems such as "If" and Edward Roland Steele's "Opportunity," we only succeed in driving them away from an ancient and honorable art form.

I have since introduced my sister to the works of Wordsworth, Donne, and Pasternak, all of whom she finds fascinating and beautiful. I can't help but wonder if the root of the problem lies in the condescension so pervasive in the curriculum. Perhaps if, instead of giving these children lessons in morality, we treated them as mature young adults, they would view poetry as a privilege rather than a curse.