"The Importance of Listening"

I'm going through our apartment with a fine tooth comb in order to make more space for our impending arrival. Today I found some writing assignments from my grade 4 class that I just had to share. This one is from the beginning of the school year when my class had not yet grasped the importance of gymnasium safety. After several warnings, their listening skills did not improve and I decided that we could not safely continue our Phys. Ed. lesson. Back to the classroom we trekked, and since I had no alternative planned, they wrote a short response explaining the "Importance of Listening."

This is what one student wrote:
You could get hurt.
You could disturb other classes.
You could waste gym class!
The teacher could make you write a dumb note.
You could get in trouble.

I can't argue. It was a dumb assignment. But on the other hand, we had no more problems with listening and gymnasium safety that year!

Another of my favourite samples:
You're supposed to listen because if you don't, you will get in a lot of trouble. If you don't listen, you won't get to pass any grade and you won't get a job and you'll b e poor and have to live on the streets or live in a box! Nobody wants to live in a box!

And last, but certainly not least! The guilt trip:
It is not safe and people should have been better listeners but it is still a little harsh to make the people that were good in gym, come in here and write. They should of continued and everyone else that was not good listeners should be in here.

I wholeheartedly agree! If only teachers could be in two places at once. :(