Turning Children on to Poetry: a Creative Writing Experiment

In a school atmosphere, where faculty must of necessity adhere to rather strict rules of teaching, the author was given the opportunity to work with a group of 50 students in a non-traditional teaching environment. The children were taught to write and appreciate poetry in an experimental setting, with almost unbelievable results. One newspaper reporter, covering one of their meetings, wrote"Watching Lee Oliver coax words and smiles from the handful of young poets before him is nearly as beautiful as the poems themselvesThe youngsters here produce verse that inspires reactions like "they must have had help" or "I bet their parents wrote that"until you watch them."