What do you think about learning poetry in school?

I hate it cause i have my own style and i like certain types of poems so when they give you a poem to write they attach so many ruled to it and i think poetry shouldnt be rules. Or if they ask you to comment on the emotions you felt. If you don't like the poem you have no emotions towards it.....i love poetry but i hate learning it in school

i never used to like poetry. i thought it was all stupid and boring.. and the ONLY way i was introduced and became to love it was reading edgar allen poe and all the poems this year in school.. i do have to agree with the fact that when some teachers teach poetry they confine you to a certain style and all that.. but i really would never have become such a lover of poetry without this year in english!

I love edgar allen poe too! I just prefere writing my own poetry and not be told what it should be like or what i should feel when i read poetry

it was only after i dropped english and the inflicted anthology's (poetry books) did i come to appreciate it. it was a poem i read that had me started.

but the thing is, if u did like it in school, could you really express yourself? would you want the world to know the secrets that poetry help with? would your poetry be less if it wasnt real. when your writing about the perfect tlife u dont feel you have?

okay. it 10 to 1. and am shattered, mebe not the best time to post thoughts.... *grins*

lv A, x

The problem with poetry in schools is that they never grab you by the proverbial balls to begin with. Most kids are asleep as the teacher trawls through the so called classics in an atempt to light their young imaginations.

Lesson for teachers: Start new. Liken poetry to songs -Eminem/Beatles: anyone, as long as they can tune into the rhyme and beat. Then work backwards, slowly, until you come to the scheme of work that is supposed to be taught on the curriculum. Then, they will already be 'opened up' in their imaginations in preparation for the weight of the greats.

We turned up to English at the start of last year, and the teacher said "OK this is Mrs. Wittingham, she's going to be teaching you poetry until the end of year 11"
We were given Anthology's including poets such as Carolanne Duffy, Simon Armitage, Robert Browning etc. They taught us the older and newer poems, but nothing that we would appreciate. Either way I liked taking the class, until our teacher started gettin stroppy.