Preserving the MES Poetry Program

Understanding that present financial circumstances demand the need to make difficult cuts in the Marlboro Elementary School budget for fiscal 2010-2011, we, the undersigned, express our concern about the proposed cutback in the school's Poetry Program. A cutback may compromise opportunities for MES students to partake in this valuable program that encourages careful personal expression and meaningful peer connection, and develops in our children a commitment to respecting the practice of embracing diversity.
For thirty years Ann Gengarelly has offered a Poetry Program to the students at Marlboro Elementary School; it has become a living history of our town, a testament of our school's legacy of kindness and a rich archive of what seeks voice in generations of our growing children. It is a program that encourages gentle introspection, and demands a listening to one another from the heart. The equanimity and universality inherent in the shared language of poetry makes it possible for our children to experience compassion for the varied textures of each other's ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
In the context of a fast paced and demanding world where children may find themselves feeling disconnected from one another and their own sense of inner peace, Ann's Poetry Program offers an vital dimension to the human experience, as poetry is an invaluable resource for creating a "circle of humanity."*
A passionate commitment to the pursuit self-knowledge, dignity, and regard for community is a great part of what defines Marlboro's exceptional elementary school. As parents, former teachers and administrators, alumni and friends of Marlboro Elementary School we value and support the preservation of the Poetry Program and hope to see, even as cuts are necessary, that they do not imperil this wonderful contribution to the MES curriculum.

Poetry*

Poetry, the one thing you'll
always remember.
It's always with you
like your heart.
Poetry soars above you
like a raven,
taking away your fears.
Poetry takes care of you.
Ann listens to me
as a sister.
Poetry will always
be with you
and me.

Zoe, age 7

*Found in Kelly Salasin's "Touching the Heart of Childhood- a visit with Poetry Teacher Ann Gengarelly,"
The Cracker Barrel, Spring/Summer 2003