Spanish for Kids

This poem speaks to the frustration I have felt as I jumped through various age levels within my content area of Modern Language.

Today, my juniors seemed surprised at the existence of elementary language classes. Spanish is so hard, miss. I almost fail every time, miss. Why would they do that to kids, miss? And I must say that it grieves my heart that these exhausted souls forgot the joy of knowing things just because.

Today, a fourth grader asked for a Spanish word list so made her one. “Español básico,” it said. Original, I know. All day she added to it. “How do you say this one? How do you say that one?" Until her untold quota was met, just because.

Today, her fourth grade classmates wanted words, too. They copied her list. They practiced her list with childlike wonder and fascination as they fearlessly said the new phrases. They said them over and over. They said them with no fear. They said them only with the delightful obsession that comes with learning something new, just because.

Today, word lists were decorated. Words were rearranged. Experimentation took place. I asked them for none of this as their teacher. They did it because of the joy of knowing things, just because.