Teach A Child To Read

Street urchins they were,

With none for them to care.

Petty thefts and playing cards

Kept them from moving onward.

It indeed seemed their fate

To remain forever illiterate.

A Good Samaritan saw

They needed to obey the law...

He did a very good deed

In teaching them how to read -

Taught 'em in his spare time,

Wiping away their lives' grime

It opened up a new world

Of the wonderful written word...

Reading brought them pleasure,

Every good book a treasure.

They opened a small library

Where members paid a small fee.

Transformed were their lives,

They threw away their knives -

So many new roads did open

When they learned to also use a pen.

Teach a child to read .....

And you've changed his life indeed.