I was just reading this poem, and I found it so relevant to teaching writing. Т Here is a quote:

Right now there is someone lying to a child, praising the work of some thirteen-year-old kid as if it were the sign of latent genius. Don’t be that person. Teaching poetry to children isn’t about discovering genius. It’s about discovering language, and discovering the difficulties inherent in manipulating it.

Don’t walk into an underserved classroom imagining that the poems the kids write will replace all that they aren’t learning. Don’t front like poems are born out of experiences and not the reckless wrestling with nouns and verbs and all the other engines of  language.

Work in a place where no one knows what an iamb is.

Don’t condescend. There is prejudice in calling something beautiful for the act and not the fact.

Here is the link to the complete poem:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/245428