The Coolest Cheetah

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

My youngest granddaughter, Willow Files, lives in Oregon with her parents and two older brothers, and she attends elementary school where she has just completed second grade.  I say “completed,” although this was the year in which everyone’s education was interrupted.  Willow came home one day in early March after probably what was an uneventful day at school, and the next morning she learned that there would be no more classes at the school that year, and that now she and all of her friends would be doing their schoolwork from home.  Willow, like so many other kids, did not get to say goodbye to her teachers or her friends – and I know that she was sad about that.

Sometime not long after that the teachers at Willow’s school decided to go out into the neighborhoods around the school, the places where the kids live, in a convoy of cars with streamers and signs.  They honked and yelled and waved at the delighted kids and parents who stepped out of their houses to watch the impromptu parade.  It was the teachers' way of providing their students with some closure for the school year.

I am an old school teacher myself, and I think the teachers at Willow’s school are very cool!

There was a contest at Willow's school earlier this year for students to draw a "cheetah"s for the cover of the school's yearbook.  Students from grades K-5 submitted entries showing their depictions of the school's mascot.   This week the school’s yearbook came out (I have a copy!), and several of the cheetahs that the students drew are featured on various pages in the yearbook – and they are all very cool!

But the coolest cheetah is the one on the cover of the yearbook, a big cheetah standing on his two hind legs and waving a paw in welcome.  He is yellow with black spots positioned in front of a white background with many spots of different colors of paint.  On the back cover was a banner that read:  “Cover Art by Willow Files.”

And Pa Rock could not be prouder!

The following poem was included on the faculty page in the yearbook.  It is untitled, and probably penned by members of the teaching staff:

“I will teach you in a room.
I will teach you now on Zoom.
I will teach you in your house.
I will teach you with a mouse.
I will teach you here and there.
I will teach you because I care.
So just do your very best.
And do not worry about the rest.”

May government have the sense and the decency to protect and watch over our children and their teachers.

You drew a beautiful cheetah, Willow!  Pa Rock loves you and your brothers, and your cousins - very much!