Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Eagle”

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

 

It is the start of the school year, and my son's teacher taught the class a crucial lesson during their first week of school.

She gave the children a short poem ("The Eagle," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson) and a choice for homework: Memorize half of it for a 100% grade, or memorize half of it for a 75% grade.

I would have guessed that every single child would have chosen to memorize the whole poem. It is, after all, only six short lines. Who wouldn't want a 100% grade?

However, out of 18 students, 10 chose to memorize half and get the 75%, and only 8 memorized the whole poem for 100%.

The teacher used these results as an opportunity to teach a lesson about persistence and pushing hard in life. "Some of you need to push harder," she told the class.

I applaud her. Etiquette is about the behaviors and attitudes that lead to success. While we might not think that work ethic and persistence fall under etiquette skills, they certainly are among the many life skills that lead to success.

We all make choices in life, and there are consequences to our choices. We can do the whole job and get a great score, or do half a job and get a mediocre score. I appreciate my son's teacher for making this lesson clear to her students right at the beginning of the school year!