"I am a serious dude who loves Spongebob"

Last semester I was working with an arts integration program at the Oracle Charter School. The school was not a great place. Middle school is a rough time for everyone, but some middle schools are more enriching than others. Oracle was a place where the strains of adolescence were constantly compounded by a student culture of near-constant derision and a faculty culture of every-man-for-himself disempowerment. This was a place that seriously needed the arts, but the students were so guarded that it was like pulling teeth to ask them to do something creative. Whenever the slightest point of creativity broke the surface it was all we teachers could do to nurture it before the environment inevitably crushed it back under the surface. The triumphs were small, but meaningful. The following poem was written by a student in 6th or 7th grade. I believe it speaks volumes about the processing of the author's internal life and the prospects of his external life.


Spongebob by Nijio Porter

I am a serious dude who loves Spongebob
I wonder why the sky is blue
I hear the phone ringing loudly
I see a book about Spongebob
I am a serious dude who loves Spongebob

I pretend that I could meet Spongebob
I feel so light in the water
I touch the top of my doghouse
I worry there will be no more Spongebob
I cry when I miss Spongebob when he is on
I am a serious dude that loves Spongebob

I understand that animals are dumb
I say reading is good
I dream I would be famous
I try to do good in school
I hope I will have a life
I am a serious dude who loves Spongebob