Poetry for Our Children

Technology empowers us to better introduce our children to poetry.  The internet combined with improved browser technology brings poetry alive.  There is an art to reading poetry aloud.  The Poetry Foundation's website includes many poems accompanied by professional quality readings.  Here are a few examples:

A simple poem for elementary school, The Daffodils by William Wordsworth (listed by its 1st line: I wandered lonely as a cloud)
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174790

A poem of medium difficulty, perhaps for middle school, although certainly a poem that speaks to adults:
Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659

A poem more appropriate for high school:  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/173476

(This website
http://genius.com/626798
translates the Italian passage at the beginning of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.)

A teacher could use the Poetry Foundation's website to provide students with poetry read aloud, but parents can also use the website.  It is our responsibility as parents to overseer our children's education and to reinforce and supplement their education.

Education for the 21st century cannot neglect our cultural history, but can use technology to enliven history.

Robert

PS
As a parent, I have tended recently to post articles on education to my Plano Parents blog because it feels more personal. I do not intend to neglect this Education for the 21st Century blog.

Also, in the New York Times Magazine, August 9, 2015, there was a nice essay by a writer who shared his love of this poem.  Google " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by Mark Levine" to read the essay.