Poems and Sayings of my 5th grade teacher

Owl (Photo credit: JamesieAB)

Mrs. Whitlock had a few favorite poems that she brainwashed us with. Here’s one:

If a task is once begun,

Never leave it ’til it’s done.

Be the labor

great or small,

do it well or not at all.

Now that I’m an adult (I won’t use the term “grown-up”) I understand what she was teaching us. Do it. Do a good job. Don’t be a slacker!

I shutter when I see the current generation of kids (which letter of the alphabet are we on? Generation Y?) who have no work ethic. Scary stuff.

I recently saw a young girl, swinging on a swing. As I got closer to her, I saw that she had an iPad on her lap, and an earphone connected to her ear!

These kids are so dependant on technology to do their math for them, their spelling (spellcheck) and even to remember friends’ phone numbers.

Whatever happened to just being a kid? (Ok, let’s not go down that path….)

Mrs. Whitlock had another poem that she drilled into our heads:

The wise old owl sat in the oak,

The more he heard, the less he spoke,

The less he spoke, the more he heard,

Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?

A very simple way of saying: you learn more by listening than talking!

And although prayer in school was illegal at that time, she “forced us” to  recite:

Our Father, which art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Forever. Amen.

And that was probably the most important poem of all!

I wonder how much trouble a teacher would be in, if they forced the kids to recite the Lord’s prayer? Might be a little less gun violence and teen pregnancy though……