"Teaching in the 21st Century" by Sam Campbell

Teaching in the 21st Century

A kid I didn’t know committed suicide last night,
shot himself in the head on Asheville Highway.
Things like that, things that don’t happen
in our small town, they happen now. They happen.

We went into lockdown last week, huddled
in a dark corner, teenage girls giggling
because they’ve never been in the dark
next to a boy before. Things like disgruntled
parents waving guns outside schools. They happen.

Evacuated to the football field last month
because someone read on social media
that there was a bomb. An hour and a half
of instructional time wasted. Things like sad,
ignored kids posting threats online. They happen.

A girl cried on my shoulder because her boyfriend
hit her. A boy asked me how to get the girl.
One restraining order, a new seating arrangement,
and a group project later, girl + boy fall in love.
Things like that, good things, they still happen.

sam campbell

Sam Campbell is a writer and teacher from Tennessee. She earned her Master's in English from East Tennessee State University where she served as the Editor-in-chief of the 47th issue of The Mockingbird, a literary arts journal. She currently serves Arkansas International as Social Media Editor, and she also holds editorial roles for Orison Books and The Great Lakes Review. She has published across all genres. Her fiction has appeared in October Hill Magazine, America's Emerging Literary Writers Anthology, and Unto These Hills. Her poetry has appeared in Pine Tree Poetry and Tennessee's Emerging Poets Anthology. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Bloodroot. She is currently earning her MFA in Fiction from the University of Arkansas, where she is a Distinguished Fiction Fellow.

Headshot: Sam Campbell

Photo Credit: Staff