Wise Old Owl Poem Analysis

One of my first memories is of my grandmother telling my sister and me about a short poem her teach forced the class to memorize and recite. “A wise old owl sat in an oak, the more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard, the wise old owl, was a wise old bird”. My parents raised my sister and me with the similar teaching that children are meant to be seen and not heard, following the logic that children’s opinions and thoughts are inferior to those of adults and, therefore, don’t improve the conversation by interjecting their unworthy opinions. Being raised in this way affected the way my sister and I interact with the world, even to this day. We are some of the quietest students in class, but looking back at the Wise Old Owl poem, being quiet definitely has advantages. By staying close to silent in class from early on, I noticed that those who dominate the conversation tend to think less and say more, and although teachers do tend to push participation, I’m happy my parents …show more content…
In 8th grade I once wrote an entire three-page essay for English class at around one in the morning in just half an hour. I had forgotten it was due the next day and didn’t even bother to look it over after I quickly typed it out in the dark and the middle of the night. I really didn’t feel I had any reason to do well in that class, as long as I completed the work I knew they wouldn’t call home to my parents, and all would run smoothly. I got an 86 on that paper. I am not sure how I attained a solid B for such little effort, but it definitely made me lose even more respect for school. I entered 9th grade feeling confident in my ability to glide through standard classes. Those classes were full of people with the same mindset as me, who could not care less about school or grades, and I sailed through the year putting minimal effort into school work, sometimes not even completing