A Teacher's Prayer

Good Master, I , a teacher too,
Need greatly to be taught by You.
I have to study and to know,
That I may help my students grow.
I would be clear to help them learn;
I would have fire to make them burn
To know; whatever else is taught.
Let me teach most the love of thought.

I pray to keep good discipline,
And pray to have it first within;
I would know when to drive or draw,
To praise or to point out the flaw,
To overlook or make demands;
Give me a mind that understands.

Let me see in each unformed youth
Our human hope of good and truth
And let me make him want to be
the perfect person that I see.

James Dillet Freeman