BLOSSOM BLOG - Learning to Read

Poem of the month - Learning to Read by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Learning to Read - By Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Very soon the Yankee teachers
   Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,--
   It was agin’ their rule.

Our masters always tried to hide
   Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge did’nt agree with slavery--
   ’Twould make us all too wise.

But some of us would try to steal
   A little from the book.
And put the words together,
   And learn by hook or crook.

I remember Uncle Caldwell,
   Who took pot liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
   And hid it in his hat.

And had his master ever seen
   The leaves upon his head,
He’d have thought them greasy papers,
   But nothing to be read.

And there was Mr. Turner’s Ben,
   Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
   And learned to read ’em well.

Well, the Northern folks kept sending
   The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
   Though Rebs did sneer and frown.

And I longed to read my Bible,
   For precious words it said;
But when I begun to learn it,
   Folks just shook their heads,

And said there is no use trying,
   Oh! Chloe, you’re too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
   I had no time to wait.

So I got a pair of glasses,
   And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
   The hymns and Testament.

Then I got a little cabin
   A place to call my own--
And I felt independent
   As the queen upon her throne.

Poetry is a wonderful way to explore ideas in your homeschool. Reading a poem with your child can be as simple as an excuse for reading practice or can expand into an expansive learning opportunity. In my homeschool this poem is another piece in our exploration into an attempt at understanding the African American experience.

Here are some ideas on how you could use this poem to launch your own lesson exploration:

• Listen to the 1619 Project from the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/podcasts/the-daily/1619-project.html).
• Ask your homeschooler to write their own poem about the power of reading.
• Ask your homeschooler to write a paragraph about what life would be like if they had never learned how to read.
• Ask your homeschooler to create an art (a drawing or painting) response to this poem.
• Read I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl together and discus their feelings about the story. Can they imagine themselves in Patsy's shoes?

P.S. for more homeschooling ideas, go to Blossom Learning. ​