It is the job of schools
To supply kids with some tools
And a space with lower stakes
To try, and to make mistakes.
Reaching for what’s next,
Building on the guidebook’s text,
Encouraging upward reaching,
Are the meat of top-notch teaching.
Somewhere in the middle
May be a place to fiddle.
But it is out, way at the edge
Where we escape the limits of the hedge.