With a desire to find other ways to understand how the teachers in my three generations of teachers understand teaching, I asked each one to write a poem. The three poems are displayed here. Please read them and see if there are any common threads.

Poems: Teaching : Taking Risks Teaching : Loves Rainbow

Loves Rainbow

by Patricia Anderson

"I want to be a teacher, I want to be a teacher."
A little girl echoed, many times not a few.
Reading writing and 'rithmatic,
Some day, some day, would her dreams come true?
At the age of ten a challenge came!
Learn 500 Bible verses - the reward to camp,
She learned them all and then two brothers taught
Many patient hours by the coal oil lamp
They all went to camp.
In the home with five siblings her talent grew
Then in 1937 glad tidings, her parents did state,
"You'll go to training school many miles from home."
Oh, what joy! She could hardly wait
And they set the date.
A year passed by and she found herself hired,
T'would be a country school with just eleven
Lively youth, grades one to nine.
How elated she was - in her seventh heaven
A dream come true.
Ah! The first morning, what delight,
She rang the bell and in they came,
With dinner pails and books and chalk and slate.
Each child found a desk, it was like a game.
This was the real life.
There was much more than teaching three plus two makes five,
To kneel and tie shoe laces; to gently wipe away a tear;
To harness a gib horse; to put logs on the fire;
To play baseball with those children dear
So much fun
One day the phone rang; t'was the school board chairman
"The queen is coming, the queen is coming
To a city some fifty miles far away.
Will you take the children?" She heard him humming.
"Yes, I will!"
In the art period they made pill box hats
With each name and address clearly seen.
Then like a mother hen and her precious brood
She took them places they had never been.
And they saw the queen!
One time the door opened and in strode the inspector.
The class stood at attention and chimed, "Good morning, Mr.
Tibadeau."
A painful silence invaded the room.
This stranger man, was he fiend or foe?"
He sat at the back taking so many notes.
The dear little school marm shook in her boots,
But with a calm outward composure she did her best
She was well organized; boys and girls so good;
And after three hours the intruder left,
What were the results?
In a few days a letter arrived
When she read the contents she shouted with glee
"You've been assigned to the Bedford school with students thirty-
three."
Two non English speaking beginners
Eight grade nines for departmental exams
And all the grades that are between! So busy, so busy.
She accepted the challenge.
Four accomplished years, then prince charming came,
They established a home and for twenty years
She taught and she taught; always in gear!
And she loved her career!
Another phone call came, "For a school near by we need a
principal."
An overwhelming desire to guide and direct
Some eighty students and teachers three.
And away she went.
Another twenty-five years, a steady routine;
Many changes in format but always the same
Desire to bring satisfaction to each girl and boy,
To help them discover their world of fame,
There were ups and some downs.
Then one day her partner, a man of discernment,
Could see she was weary. "How long could she weather
The demands of life?" He gently suggested,
"Let's terminate our labors and retire together.
And they did.
And in my bureau drawer there's a little white box,
A compass, some chalk, erasers, pens, pencils, and other things
are there,
They are golden memories of days gone by,
Just the fond remembrances of the teaching career of a maiden
fair.