Making Robert Learn Like Susan

by Tara Bergin

Everybody wants Robert to learn like Susan,
but there are always more Roberts than Susans,
aren’t there?
Blaming Robert isn’t helpful.
Susan is by nature a deep learner:
it’s easy for her.
She’s not like Robert,
trying to show off with big words like
opaque
or transubstantiation.
Silly Robert!
He has memorized them from a book!
He doesn’t know their real meanings!
Because Robert is a surface learner,
whereas Susan is deep.
Blaming Robert isn’t helpful.
What we need
is to take all the Roberts from this world
and make them Susans.

© Tara Bergin

From The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet)
With the kind permission of the publisher