From The Topeka State Journal, October 22, 1914. By Roy K. Moulton.

By gum, I hate to go to school;
I’d almost rather be a fool.
I got to set in there all day
When I ort to go out and play.
I think it is a doggone bluff
To make us learn a lot of stuff
Which we ain’t never goin’ to use,
Just look at all the time we lose.
Who cares if Nero burned up Rome,
Or if the world is round or flat?
I don’t, and I will tell you that.

I have to get licked every day,
It somehow seems to come that way.
If some kid don’t perform the trick,
The teacher does it with a stick.
And when the teacher licks me bad
I always get one more from dad.
There’s nearly always somethin’ wrong
Right from the first tap of the gong.
There ain’t no peace for any kid
Who goes to school as I have did.
It makes me stubborn as a mewl,
By gum, to have to go to school.