Don't Eat the Green Ones

Don't Eat the Green Ones ©

I'll tell you, speaking from experience

Life is like a bag of potato chips

Some are perfect and round

And they crunch just right

While others are green

All hard and nasty

They just don't taste the same



Yuck



If you pick around them

And be careful what you eat

You'll find

That bag of potato chips

Really is all it's cracked up to be

Those green ones may make you sick

(That's a myth, I think)



If you listen to my advice

And keep it close at heart

You'll find if you pick and choose your chips

(And don't eat them in the dark)

Picking around those green ones

Won't be so hard

And the extra work will pay off in the long run

So be careful when eating potato chips

And don't eat the green ones



Tamara O’Connell

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Note: My great Aunt Gleasie, before she died while in her 90's, gave me this poem she wrote on the day I was born, December 10, 1944.

Fifteen Days Before Christmas

"Twas fifteen days before Christmas on a Sabbath morn,

In the Norfolk General Hospital, a baby was born.

There were other babies too--ones I've never seen

But this one in particular is little Bonnie Jean.



She was tucked in her basket with the greatest of care

Without the slightest idea that Daddy was near.

He was--and Granddaddy too--

Awaiting news of a baby in blue.



Thirty hours he waited in great suspense,

Till the doctors thought he'd have no sense.

So he bit his nails and paced the floor,

When suddenly a nurse appeared in the door.



Said she, "Mr. Schupp, your wife presents you with a fine baby girl."

But she realized his head was still in a whirl

When he still imagined she had said a boy,

because like a sailor, he simply shouted, "Ship ahoy!"



Now that all is over, and Mother and baby are doing well,

Daddy feels much better too, as everyone could tell.

He is not disappointed, and confidentially I think,

He is perfectly satisfied with a little girl in pink.



Gleasie Leatherbury

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Teacher Apathy?

This was a posting responding to seeming apathy of teachers in posting a response to a thought provoking posting on the University of Maryland listserv:

-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Banks
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 9:09 PM
To: MDK-12@UMDD.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [MDK-12] Column about why so many teachers are leaving thepublic schools

But what is really remarkable is that you are the only one to respond! Absolutely amazing, the amount of silence! Harry

---

This was my response about our "apparent" apathy:

From: “Bonnie Schupp”
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [MDK-12] Column about why so many teachers are leaving the public schools

Maybe we’re just all burned out, especially at this time of the year. Maybe we have barely enough energy for survival. If I dwell on negatives right now, I won’t make it. One thing for sure, though. I won’t be in teaching much longer and am now working on a degree which will lead me to another career. It’s a shame because I love teaching, but I am not such a masochist that I enjoy being beaten by a system that doesn’t understand reality in the same way teachers in the trenches do.
Bonnie Schupp

---

This was the response to my posting:

Bonnie, sorry to hear that you might be leaving. I and probably 600 others on this list know exactly what those feelings are, and that they are strongest now in April, May and June. Unfortunately I know only one person who has left who regretted not interacting with kids, and she only regretted that for the first year. Now she makes more money than my wife and I put together and feels quite productive with her company which very much appreciates the ex-math teacher. Wouldn’t it be a dream to have a society of teachers who left the profession to march on the state or local government the way the Viet Nam veterans (who paid their dues big time) demonstrated against the waste of that war. The republicans think it is about a new test for accountability, and the dems keep saying more money more money. Not too many people outside the classroom are concerned about discipline and absolutely stopping class disruption with the use of law as a top priority. I work (after 30 years of combat) with kids I enjoy and parents come in to apologize for mis-behavior. My only regret is the overwhelming majority of kids who went by my charge and did not get 100% of my time. The emotionally and behaviorally “needy” got the largest percentage, as the teacher gets administrative kudos for handling THOSE kids so well. I would be right there with you, leaving, had I not gone to a school that struggles to face the tough problems and supports teachers the way they should. But will those administrators be invited to speak as the university to the next crop of innocents? I hope you stay! Harry ----- Original Message -----