"CORE" CURRICULUM FOUND UNDER THE OLD APPLE TREE

a core curriculum is one in which the children bring apples to school, eat them, and plant the cores in the school grounds.

they watch them sprout and grown into leaves and blossoms, and then fruit. this is SCIENCE.
they paste pieces of bark and twigs and leaves on paper and they paint pictures of the apples in a dish. this is ART.
the children sit under the trees singing, "In the shade of the Old Apple Tree." this is MUSIC.
the story of Johnny Appleseed is told to them. this is LIBRARY SCIENCE.
they climb up in the tree and pick apples. this is PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
they count the apples, 'taking away' the wormy ones. this is MATHEMATICS.
in their own words, they tell what a tree is and what they felt when they saw the cores turn into trees. They also write letters to the National Apple Growers Association. this is LANGUAGE ARTS.
the gifted children do enrichment research by reading Kilmer's TREES or by finding out about Isaac Newton, the Apple of Discord, the Garden of Eden, William Tell and other apple-y events. They learn such words as arbor, l'arbre, Apfel, Baum, manzana. this is FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
they build boxes to store the apples. this is INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
they bake them and sauce them and pie them. this is HOMEMAKING.
then everyone eats them and learns about nutritional value. this is HEALTH EDUCATION.
all these activities are performed without a textbook or workbook. When the apples are gone, they take the cores once again and plant them in the school grounds and watch them grow, and flower, and fruit.
Pretty soon you cannot see the school for the trees. this is called THE END OF EDUCATION.

Wish i knew the original source but like so many things this verse has been "around" for ages. I've had it for at least 20 years. To the original author - congratulations.

2 / 12 / 94j:)
12 / 5t / 95