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Teach 'Em Mandarin

Kids today can't focus
    Most have ADD
  Forget about 'comprehension'
    'Cat' and 'Dog' they can't read 

  Instead of essays, they write jigsaw puzzles
    That's why on 'writing tests'
  Just have 'em fill in bubbles
    Grading them is much less trouble

  As for mathematics, it's a foreign language
    Teach 'em Mandarin instead
  That way they won't get confused
    when counting sheep in bed

  Yet there's one tried-and-true solution
    every teacher ought to use
  Tell 'em it's not mandatory ~
    but you'd like to tell 'em a story

Copyright © Gershon Wolf | Year Posted 2022

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Caren Krutsinger Date: 11/7/2022 11:00:00 PM They all want to hear the story! Login to Reply

Kim Rodrigues Date: 11/7/2022 6:21:00 PM Read your comments too! What have we done to the kids! Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 11/7/2022 7:57:00 PM Very simple. 'We' have not demanded much of them. As they say, 'Be careful of what you wish for.' (speaking of cliches)...

Becky Forbes Date: 11/7/2022 5:52:00 AM I have a son in college studying Aerospace Engineering. He tries to relay his calculus and physics learnings... might as well be Mandarin! I revel at his mind's capabilities. Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 11/7/2022 6:22:00 AM I have a Mandarin for American adults book (all pictures) with a Physics section in the middle. Interested? ~ A little levity, Gershon

Michelle Faulkner Date: 11/6/2022 9:10:00 PM Funny, my nephew spent a year in China, speaks fluent Mandarin, his wife is also Chinese, so their daughter is growing up speaking both! Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 11/7/2022 6:19:00 AM Does he 'take tea and see?!' ... Anyway, have him ship a crate of those Mandarin oranges to my house pronto. I'm almost out. lol... And good luck speaking to your little grand-niece there! (Tell her a story!! from a picture book!!) Smiles, Gershon

L Milton Hankins Date: 11/6/2022 9:09:00 PM The generalization is a bit jarring, gw. I happen to know many, many kids who are doing well, reading on advanced levels, learning two languages, and mastering mathematical skills I can't begin to understand. It's a new day! Computer math is replacing simple addition and subtraction. These kids will be facing a world we can scarcely imagine, and I predict they'll do very well. Login to Reply Gershon Wolf Date: 11/7/2022 7:56:00 PM Ha, ha! Under my sterling tutelage, my charges went from having trouble with 9 + 6 to having trouble with 4 + 7. No kidding. I finally gave up teaching kids in Chicago in 2015; continued teaching adults -- international students and refugees -- until 2019. Oh, well. L Milton Hankins Date: 11/7/2022 11:16:00 AM Whew! That is scary, gw. 9 + 6, you say? So, were you able to improve their levels while they were with you? I certainly hope so. I could be wrong, but I see this new parental involvement with the schools as a real negative. The classroom should be left to classroom teachers who are prepared and who know what to do. We could talk about these things for hours, couldn't we? Gershon Wolf Date: 11/7/2022 6:16:00 AM Well, I am sure you do know many kids like that. Actually, I do too. Really... The problem is that a very low % of those kids are living in Chicago or L.A. or NYC or any of the other one-party teachers union-controlled fiefdoms. I assure you that, having taught in Chicago for over 25 years, fighting the union all the way, the only exaggeration in my poem was 'cat' and 'dog.' I was teaching a whole class of eighth graders who couldn't add 9 + 6, let alone multiply or divide them. And who could have cared less. And whose parents could have cared less... And they were all Caucasians, Milt, from upper-middle class homes. As for ADD, sometimes I think that urban schools should be reclassified as Pharmacies! We are in a new era, and these kids aren't even in the 19th century yet. So Sad!! ~ gw