--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There's no one right way to teach poetry…" description: "\"There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools.\" — Michael Rosen" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png" --- # There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools. ![“There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools.” quote by Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png) > “There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools.” [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. There are many effective methods for teaching poetry; no single approach works for all students and contexts. **In simple terms:** No single best way to teach poetry. Key Takeaway Experiment with varied teaching styles. Themes education creativity pedagogy Mood inspired thoughtful Type educational practical When to use this quote - classroom lessons - workshops - online modules Key Concepts constructivism differentiated instruction Questions to Reflect On - How can you balance structure and freedom in poetry lessons? - What methods engage your students most? A Different Perspective Some students may need more structure than flexibility. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Right way](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/right-way/) [Schools](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/schools/) ## Related quotes > [When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/norman-maccaig/when-i-was-asked-to-be-writer-in-residence-at-edinburgh-i-thought-you/) [Norman MacCaig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/norman-maccaig/) > [I teach Zen, tantric mysticism, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, Tibetan mysticism, occultism and psychic development. I also teach poetry and literature, film and many…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/i-teach-zen-tantric-mysticism-jnana-yoga-bhakti-yoga-tibetan/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikki-giovanni/poetry-is-the-most-mistaught-subject-in-any-school-because-we-teach/) [Nikki Giovanni](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikki-giovanni/) > [Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-r-ammons/besides-the-actual-reading-in-class-of-many-poems-i-would-suggest-you/) [A. R. Ammons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-r-ammons/) > [Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hockney/well-you-can-t-teach-the-poetry-but-you-can-teach-the-craft/) [David Hockney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hockney/) > [The way I see it, we teach our children through modeling.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marianne-williamson/the-way-i-see-it-we-teach-our-children-through-modeling/) [Marianne Williamson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marianne-williamson/) > [The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/randy-pausch/the-best-way-to-teach-somebody-something-is-to-have-them-think-they/) [Randy Pausch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/randy-pausch/) > [Why don't we teach sex the way we teach math or history? It is such a deeply crucial and healing part of life and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eve-ensler/why-don-t-we-teach-sex-the-way-we-teach-math-or-history-it-is-such-a/) [Eve Ensler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eve-ensler/) > [The only way is to teach with love, which requires looking beyond what seems, and remembering we create with our judgements.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-only-way-is-to-teach-with-love-which-requires-looking-beyond-what/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ignacio-estrada/if-a-child-can-t-learn-the-way-we-teach-maybe-we-should-teach-the-way/) Ignacio Estrada > [The way we teach is a very linear kind of way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-bozzio/the-way-we-teach-is-a-very-linear-kind-of-way/) [Terry Bozzio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-bozzio/) > [Food is the best way to teach history and geography and most everything else.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-kurlansky/food-is-the-best-way-to-teach-history-and-geography-and-most/) [Mark Kurlansky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-kurlansky/) > [Not only is example the best way to teach, it is the only way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-schweitzer/not-only-is-example-the-best-way-to-teach-it-is-the-only-way/) [Albert Schweitzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-schweitzer/) > [Example is not one of the best ways to teach. It is the only way to teach.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/example-is-not-one-of-the-best-ways-to-teach-it-is-the-only-way-to/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I think that the only way to teach is by example, as children will more easily follow what they see you do than what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-estefan/i-think-that-the-only-way-to-teach-is-by-example-as-children-will/) [Gloria Estefan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-estefan/) ## More by Michael Rosen > [Performance poetry is not one genre. Some chant, sing and dance. Some stand rooted to the spot and stare. Some chat their way in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/performance-poetry-is-not-one-genre-some-chant-sing-and-dance-some/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [Anyway, once children get to talk, they seem to be finding ways to joke.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/anyway-once-children-get-to-talk-they-seem-to-be-finding-ways-to-joke/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [When I was about 15 - that would be some 60 years ago - I remember my father, a secondary school teacher, was always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/when-i-was-about-15-that-would-be-some-60-years-ago-i-remember-my/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [One of the many falsities of fiction that we accept quite happily is the non-ageing of characters as they appear across series and sequels.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/one-of-the-many-falsities-of-fiction-that-we-accept-quite-happily-is/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [Commitment is not a barrier to freedom. Commitment is the \*exercise\* of freedom, the act of making a choice or decision and meaning it.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/commitment-is-not-a-barrier-to-freedom-commitment-is-the-exercise-of/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [What happens on the ground is that schools have been required to follow a literacy matrix - yes, some schools junked it - but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/what-happens-on-the-ground-is-that-schools-have-been-required-to/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [Yes, it's possible to play computer games on your own and many do. But I also see children playing them in pairs and fours…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/yes-it-s-possible-to-play-computer-games-on-your-own-and-many-do-but/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [You can give up the best years of your life knowing that no matter what you do or how you do it, your step-child…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/you-can-give-up-the-best-years-of-your-life-knowing-that-no-matter/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [We have an almost complete comprehensive primary school system in England. Surely, if grammar schools are some kind of answer to making education better…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/we-have-an-almost-complete-comprehensive-primary-school-system-in/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [Where the government has got it seriously wrong is to imagine that poetry is about right and wrong answers, that poetry has testable outcomes.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/where-the-government-has-got-it-seriously-wrong-is-to-imagine-that/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [Its social: in doing the arts we find out what we need from each other. But its also about survival - surviving as individuals,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/its-social-in-doing-the-arts-we-find-out-what-we-need-from-each-other/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [Cricket is great for families, so long as you don't play by the proper rules and adapt it so the youngest can be helped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/cricket-is-great-for-families-so-long-as-you-don-t-play-by-the-proper/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [The brothers Grimm were indeed once read by millions of people - quite often the first reading materials given to people in the 1950s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/the-brothers-grimm-were-indeed-once-read-by-millions-of-people-quite/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [The world of children's books is a very friendly, decent place to be. It's full of people who are desperate to enlighten, interest and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/the-world-of-children-s-books-is-a-very-friendly-decent-place-to-be/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) > [The main problem with people not reading to their children is the lack of a bridge between schools and families, so that children don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/the-main-problem-with-people-not-reading-to-their-children-is-the/) [Michael Rosen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) [Explore all 106 Michael Rosen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/) ## More Poetry quotes > [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/) [Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/) > [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/) [Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/) > [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/) [Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/) > [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/) [Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/) > [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/) [David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/) > [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/) [Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/) [Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/) > [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/) [Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/) > [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/) [anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/) Uncle Arnie Mamath [Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Michael Rosen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry-in-schools/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry-in-schools/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a58/michael-rosen-4765_poetry_there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry_2508403.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools.” — Michael Rosen", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Michael Rosen", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-rosen/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "There's no one right way to...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry-in-schools/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-rosen/there-s-no-one-right-way-to-teach-poetry-in-schools/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```