Opinion – Judy Harris: Happy St. Patrick’s Day — with a blessing and a greeting

“May your troubles be less and your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door.” — Irish Blessing

We elementary teachers often use popular holidays to bring freshness into year-long curriculum areas that occasionally need a lift or to naturally work in a required subject or skill such as in art, music, writing, social studies.

One of my favorites was the rich potential of Irish heritage with St. Patrick and his March 17th holiday.

So many tales of Irish leprechauns and pots of gold, colors of the rainbow, four-leaf clovers, wishes coming true, luck o’ the Irish.

Charming for second graders.

Each Monday, my students would select the bonus word for their spelling test later in the week. A bonus word would be one they used frequently but needed help in remembering the correct spelling. Often it was an adverb or verb as where or were.

On Monday, as St. Patrick’s Day was approaching, they chose leprechaun as their bonus word for the week. It was a natural choice. They loved everything leprechaun. The tales, the cute fellows, their green outfits, their Irish jigs, the leprechaun behaviors. Everything.

In the mid-sixties in Cincinnati Public Schools, the regular classroom teachers of K-3 taught the special areas of art, music, and physical education.

That spring, our music class was learning simple music notation. Our instruments were a few single-scale mini xylophones.

Early that week during the music lesson, someone wondered, “Could we sing leprechaun?” A little melody was born: do, sol, do, mi, sol, sol, fa, mi, re, do. L, e, p, r, e, c, h, a, u, n.

We were all smiling. Such a grand idea. And then we were singing the bonus spelling word.

When Friday came with its weekly spelling test, the bonus word was leprechaun. Ready for the bonus word, they were grinning ear to ear, confidence shining on each face.
As soon as I gave the word and sentence, humming accompanied their writing.

Yes, 100% for everyone with that very difficult spelling word.

Leprechaun magic.

Judy Harris is well established in Northern Kentucky life, as a longtime elementary and university educator. A graduate of Thomas More, she began her career there in 1980 where she played a key role in teacher education and introduced students to national and international travel experiences. She has traveled and studied extensively abroad. She enjoys retirement yet stays in daily contact with university students.