Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Lola is a native San Franciscan

Every week Lola brings home a sampling of her work in the first grade, usually a set of worksheets she filled out in the classroom. This can be a monotonous thing to review, pages of 2 + 2 = 4 and "underline the long vowel sound", etc.., etc.., but it is well worth a careful examination, given that the unique genius of Lola somehow leaks through at times, even on the most boring of worksheets.

Today I found a sheet where Lola was instructed to "Make a picture of four squares. Put a squirrel to the left of the first square. Put a squirrel to the right of the second square. Put a squirrel over the third square. Put a squirrel under the fourth square." Lola obeyed these commands, and then went on to squeeze into the margin a picture of a fruit tree, a peace sign, two cats beaming at each other, and three stick figures hugging each other and smiling. Where Lola was supposed to practice writing the word "square," she wrote (continuing this onto the back of the page) the following ode to the square:
A square, each of its sides with equal rights, loving nature. building a tree. The square is a Happy Hippie like me. Be nice to Squares. Raise them in your mind. When 18, let them free.

5 comments:

Iris mustard said...

Lucy has created an entire collection of writing written as a hippie. There was one about losing a tooth, which was not as funny.

hughman said...

i actually think this poem is pretty awesome. "a square, where all sides have equal rights." it doesn't get better than that.

Ellen Spertus said...

I love it!

Silliyak said...

A hippie could lose a tooth without having any actually physically gone, if I remember correctly, but as we say, if you can remember the 60's you weren't there.

L K C J said...

The poem is incredible, and I loved this post. I also love the little notes and drawings in the margins of the kids homework--the creativity hasn't been squashed yet.