The Chilly Age
Although likely not intended as such considering the poem was published in 1991 when not enough of the population had even heard terms like global warming or climate change for the subject to become controversial, the march of time has served to make the history teacher’s downplaying of epochal extremes in climate a symbol of that very controversy. His re-characterization of the Ice Age into the sweater-weather Chilly Age presciently replicates the downplaying of the seriously of climate change by its deniers, especially those confusing weather with climate.
The Spanish Inquisition
In the hands of the history teacher, one of the most despicable aspects of in the two-thousand year old history of Christianity is distilled into inquiries about Spanish culture like what to call the hat worn by a matador. In reality, this change is a not entirely unrealistic portrayal symbol of the ways in which private Christianity faith-based schools completely ignore the sins of their religion’s history in order to generationally perpetuate the whitewashed myth of Christian history.
Hiroshima
The teacher transforms the payload carried by Enola Gay from that of atomic bombs to just one single tiny atom. This jaw-dropping reduction is symbolic of the way that the America has presented itself in the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on innocent civilians credited with bringing World War II to an end. What is more difficult to believe: that no bombs were dropped from Enola Gay and instead just one single atom or that the only country on the planet which has ever actually used an atomic bomb on another country would proceed to spend the next three-quarters of a century telling other countries they should not be allowed to have them? In this particular case, the satirical dimension of the symbol pales in comparison to the reality.
The Bullies
The students who attend the teacher’s history class and receive imaginatively censored version of history which reveals the completely lack of innocence of human beings at their worst proceed to head straight from the classroom to playground to display the same lack of humanity and empathy to which they have not been exposed. It is the students of the history teacher themselves who come to symbolize the fruitlessness of the teacher’s misguided plan. It is not that shielding them from the ugliness of history has caused their bullying, but simply that human nature will not be so easily controlled and misdirected.
The Bullied
The only thing that can be counted upon from bullies is that they will pick on those weaker than themselves. If this applies to an athlete, then a weak athlete will be tormented by a stronger bully. If it applies to a Poindexter, then the smart kid will be tormented by a stronger bully. In this case, however, a clear distinction is made as the teacher’s students are described heading to the playground “to torment the weak and the smart.” This phrasing strongly intimates that the smart are not also the weak, but a separate group that is merely equated with the weak by bullies. This equation becomes a symbol of a problem much more widespread today than in 1990: reverse elitism which conflates higher education with weakness or a lack of masculinity.
