Examples of Creativity Provided by a 6th-grade Class During History Tests
1. The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shake-speare. He was born in the 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couple.
2. Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
3. Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were to 2 singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing two cats backward and declared, a horse divided against itself can not stand. Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
4. Abraham Lincoln was Americas greatest precedent. Lincolns mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation . On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in the moving picture show. They believe the assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a suposingly insane actor. This ruined Booths career.
5. Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large.
6. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died from this.
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One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list.
Before long, the entire class was smiling. Really? she heard whispered. I never knew that I meant anything to anyone! and, I didn’t know others liked me so much, were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class with their parents, but it didn’t matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. Were you Mark’s math teacher? he asked. She nodded. Yes.Then he said: Mark talked about you a lot.
After the funeral, most of Marks former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
We want to show you something, his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it. Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him.
Thank you so much for doing that, Mark’s mother said. As you can see, Mark treasured it. All of Marks former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, I still have my list. Its in the top drawer of my desk at home. Chucks wife said, Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.I have mine too, Marilyn said. Its in my diary. Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her purse and showed her frazzled list to the group. I carry this with me at all times, Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: I think we all saved our lists.
That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.
Tell them, before it is too late...
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Today
I may never see tomorrow, there’s no written guarantee,
And things that happened yesterday belong to history.
I cannot predict the future, I cannot change the past;
I have just the present moments, I must treat it as my last.
I must use this moment wisely for it soon will pass away,
And be lost forever as part of yesterday.
I must exercise compassion, help the fallen to their feet;
Be a friend unto the friendless, make an empty life complete.
The unkind things I do today may never be undone,
And friendships that I fail to win many nevermore be won.
I may not have another chance on bended knees to pray;
And I thank God with a humble heart for giving me this Day.
Author Unknown
Published in U s Legacies Magazine April 2003
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