Each morning at Oxbow, following daily announcements, Stephen Thomas (Head of School) reads a poem to the entire student body. Here's what Stephen says about the cherished tradition--why he reads poems, and how he chooses them:
I read poems at breakfast because I just like reading poetry, and as one visiting artist said, "What a treat to have someone reading you a poem to start the day!" I choose poems that will disrupt the expectation of a rhyme and a beat. Some poems I read at a specific point in the curriculum, but most of them are either new to me, or old friends just calling to say 'hello.' Sometimes I am reading to understand a poem better, because the experience of the poem is different when it is read aloud. Sometimes the poem is in response to an encounter with a student or their work. I try to read outdoor poems on the Tuesday/Thursday co-curricular days, and always choose poems tuned to the season. Finally, there are some classics that I feel everyone should have read or heard by the time they are in high school!
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