Bill Collins poem "The History Teacher" is evidently towards keeping the innocence of our youth. In his many examples of history throughout the poem, it is as if the teacher is in hope of keep his students in the innocent mindset by falsely sweetening up the events of history. While throughout the majority of this poem the mindset is to influence the children that nothing ever bad comes of this world, in stanza 5 " The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart," implies something totally different. While the poem itself talks about a teacher informing of his children of false historical events in order to keep their mind of innocence, it seems as if the author is trying to imply that by not informing children of the bad things that have really happened throughout history it has caused them to have arrogant attitudes towards the smart children. The smart children much shyer because they know that bad things happen.