I want to teach my students how to live this life on earth.
To face its struggles and its strife and to improve their worth.
Not just the lesson in a book or how the rivers flow,
But how to choose the proper path wherever they may go.
To understand eternal truth and know the right from wrong
And gather all the beauty of a flower and a song.
For if I help the world to grow in wisdom and in grace
Then I will feel that I have won and will have filled my place.
And so I ask your guidance God, that will do my part
For character and confidence and happiness of heart.
Teacher's Prayer by James Metcalf