In parts of the country, school is already starting this week. My brother in Florida is a professor at the university in Jupiter. His new wife teaches elementary school. Between them, they have five kids ranging in age from seventeen to ten. The whole family is starting school this week.
A while back, I read on The Writer’s Almanac a poem called “They’re Taking Chocolate Milk off the Menu.” You can read it at http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2013/09/16 . This inspired the following two poems from That’s Life: New and Selected Poems. As you’ll note, they contradict each other. After reading them, you can weigh in with your opinion.
NO POP IN SCHOOL
Without the caffeine,
students would doze, not learn a thing.
If kids could bring soda to class,
they would be more attentive, able to concentrate.
Teachers may have belching contests on their hands,
but that just goes with the territory.
It never occurred to me
to buy a can from the machine for consumption in class.
If I were to go back to high school,
I would take Dr. Pepper to Speech,
let the top’s pop fill the air,
stand, deliver with a belch.
FORGET WHAT I SAID
about pop in school.
Loaded with sugar, caffeine,
not good for kids,
not conducive to learning,
it must be eliminated.
Too many students climb walls.
We must start somewhere,
no more pop in school.
What do you think about pop in school?
Abbie Johnson Taylor, Author of We Shall Overcome and How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver and That’s Life: New and Selected Poems
My Corner 
I certainly would have been more alert if I had pop in school.
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I can imagine the reaction if any of us had brought pop into a classroom. It wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do. Belching would have been unthinkable.
I’m for getting both sugar and artificial sweeteners off campus. Real food, yes–junk, no.
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Thank you, Kathy for your insight. It was the same in my day, too, unthinkable but something to think about.
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