Charles always had a way of saying it. A skill I thought could only be matched or accomplished by Sir Walter or the other Charles.

Nobody HAS to do it. It’s a performance opportunity. Students probably have many reasons for wanting to do it. Educators have numerous reasons of their own for encouraging students to participate in this program. Off the top of my head, here are some of the benefits:

-As they are selecting their poems, students wind up reading through a LOT of poems with an attentiveness they might not otherwise have. Thus, these students are exposed to a wide variety of poems they might otherwise never have read.

-Perhaps some of these students will be inspired to write their own poems. Using language poetically requires thinking outside the proverbial box. This kind of creative thought is critical to developing inventiveness, yet is largely neglected in our educational system.

-Public speaking skills are useful in just about any career.

-You don’t have to be an A student to succeed in PoetryOutLoud. Here’s an opportunity for students who might otherwise never receive recognition for anything, to achieve.

-Some people just like to be on stage with lots of people watching them. A student interested in drama, for instance, might use POL as an opportunity to practice performing a monologue.

-Studying a poem in depth, analyzing it, memorizing it–internalizing it to the extent that you can live it and breathe it–means you own that poem forever. It becomes a part of you. Some people gain satisfaction and enjoyment from this kind of deep analysis. Perhaps there is some human lesson to be learned from becoming so familiar with another person’s thoughts.

-It looks good on college applications.

-If you win, you get tons of scholarship $$. Your school also gets $$ to buy library books.

-It’s fun.

-You might get to go to your state capitol and maybe to Washington DC, and meet other contestants from all over the state or country, which would be fun.

That’s all I can think of for the moment. I’m sure others can add more reasons.

Hope this helps answer your question!

- Lensa a.k.a Linsey