Student Samples derived from
Raised By Mentor Text Selections from
Teaching for Joy & Justice by Linda Christensen
I Am Raised By Football
By R.T.
I am raised by football.
Some neck breakin’, might runnin’
Scream til your ears pop kinda coaches.
The you better still come to the game
even if your leg is broken kinda coaches.
The restless times, runnin’ play after play
Don’t let em’ get ya down
even if they score on ya kinda of coaches.
Raised by TV
By R.T.
I was raised by TV.
The sit down when your bored
Don’t know what to do
Turn it on and sit on the couch
Kind of TV.
The eatin’ chips, sippin’ soda
The next thing you know
Fall asleep and don’t know what
is going on kinda couch potato TV.
And when your mom yells
“Get off your behind and feed Buddy
cause you guys wanted the dog”
you can pretend to still be asleep TV.
Raised by Football
By S.P.
I was raised by football
Scoring touchdowns
Popin’ people
Watching the referee
put up his hands in the air
when I score kinda football.
Going under the tent
And making long runs
Sitting on the sidelines
Cheering on our defense
Screaming, “Come on
Don’t let them score”
Kind of football.
The pushing me coaches
To move on even when
I don’t score our team a
Touchdown kind of football-
Even if it’s hard for me to get over it.
Raised by Basketball.
By K.J.
I was raised by those dunk slammin’
Hard core, roughest stompin basketballs.
By three-pointers and free throw shots
And hoping to dunk basketballs.
Raised by dribbling, shooting, skittering
Shaking basketball players.
A winning or losing,
Just glad to be at the game
Kind of crowd for basketball.
Raised by Wrestling
By D.M.
I was raised by wrestling.
The WWE pop, head butt and rock
Pick up, slammin’ hard,
Fightin’ and jamming WWE.
The special moves when all you
can think about when you see
them is “Wow!”
That ridden off the top of the ropes
Kind of wrestling.
The moves that blow your mind
And your mom says that she must
Be seeing things and when she turns
It off you think, “You must be kidding me!”
Kind of wrestling.
Raised by Tetherball
By M.H.
I was raised by
ball hittin’, ball swingin’,
don’t hit your face tetherball.
I was raised by swing that thing
Around the pole.
By that don’t lose of you’ll
Cry cause your frustrated
Kind of tetherball.
By the ball swishing through the air,
want to climb the poll to grab it
but you can’t kind of tetherball.
Raised by Soccer
By R.W.
I was raised to be a foot kickin’ and trippin’
Blister poppin’ making goals kind of kid.
Bone snappin’, power pumpin’, strong crackin’,
Stone gold master nasty dinted ball
And rusty goal poles kind of kid.
Playing with dirty rottin’, punk looking,
Ugly nose booger eatin’ and rabbit feet
Roastin’ scary kinda of playing soccer kids.