Soon after our Dip.Ed. begins, I solemnly warn my students that, when they go out into schools for their English teaching practice, they will be asked to teach poetry: indeed, in many cases, the poetry they present will be the only poetry those classes will have for the whole year. They smile and even laugh indulgently, and we talk about why teachers wouldn’t want to teach poetry. It’s a pleasant academic point. But when the students come back in late April after some weeks in schools, their eyes are wide and they say, ‘It’s true. We have to teach the poetry!’.