What do you wish you'd learned at school about poetry?

[milo]

Creative writing classes tap into something different than math.
People can discover parts of themselves when they begin to write
and a dedicated writing teacher can really help students who are
struggling in their lives.

And I could say:
"Math classes tap into something different than creative writing classes.
People can discover parts of themselves when they study math and a
dedicated math teacher can really help students who are struggling in
their lives."

Math was like that for me. Salvation comes in many forms (and from
all directions ).

Too much information zone:
Mathematicians are five times more likely than average to play a
musical instrument.

What was the sample size on that study? 5 mathematicians?

Math and music share common roots.

plumbing and music share common roots. Animal husbandry and music share common roots. Math and carpentry share common roots. This could go on all day.

Math and
poetry, especially the more systematic forms, do as well.

as does math and almost every single other discipline you could think of. As does poetry and almost every other discipline you could think of. Not a very strong statement.

(Mathematicians must love villanelles ).

Tough to think of an occupation you couldn't make a case for loving villanelles.

And they all contain
structures that are parallel to the other's: complex rhythms,
chains of meaning, idiom, metaphor, self-reference, rhyme schemes,
symbolism, parallel structures (ha, yes, recursion), and zillions
more.

just like every other thing on the planet. Patterns and coincidences seem to show up wherever the seeker looks.