Apprentice Workshops Poem by John Sensele

Classrooms are cognitive assembly lines
Which plane and panel beat folks into number crunchers
Folks into engineers, folks into expert metallurgists and geologists who man mines
Folks into power-hungry demagogues and folks into pharmaceutical researchers.

Classrooms are debate chambers where folks cross pollinate
Their ideas, insights and idiosyncrancies. They are affective factories which polish rough edges
To fill cerebrae with essences, substances and references that disseminate
Facts, concepts, processes, systems, procedures and civic pages and sages.

Classrooms sometimes turn into mediator sinks and gladiator rings
Where teachers unleash sarcasm and splash red ink
On hours of hard work learners laboured to couch in things
Academic, things coherent, things cohesive in blue or black Quink.

Classrooms by and large accommodate scores of pliable minds
Avid to master calligraphy, orthography, vocabulary and grammar rules
To earn certificates, diplomas and degrees whose lofty kinds
Seldom fail to avail social mobility to owners in professional pools.

Classrooms abiding by Thorndike and Skinner confer rewards
Awards, trophies, stars and cups as incentives
For next generations to cruise towards
Improving knowledge levels, upgrade skill levels and tame invectives.