Today’s the last day of school here. I can’t help remember our last day of school chant from when I was a kid…
No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s
Dirty looks.
Kick the tables
Kick the chairs
Kick the teachers
Down the stairs!
Every kid in my generation sang this on the last day of school every year. We may have felt a tinge of guilt on singing the last two lines. But, in reality, it was just a chant of glee about the school year ending and the start of summer. There were no ill-intents except for that we were sooooooo happy school was out and we wouldn’t mind not seeing any teachers for a couple of months.
I don’t know how many people chant it nowadays. My daughter didn’t know it when I chanted it this morning to her. And when I got to the last 2 lines, she asked, “Why would you say that?” So the generations have changed… which I suppose is not bad after all.
My daughter also told me that at her school on the last day, the teachers all go outside and wave to the buses of kids while they’re departing. Now that’s a nice custom!
Perhaps there’s more overall civility in schools nowadays.
Happy summer!
Mama Lisa
PS Feel free to let us know in the comments below if you or your kids still sing this chant. You’re also welcome to share other end of school year chants (in any language – though we appreciate translations!).
This article was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 9:31 am and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, English, Languages, Mama Lisa, School, Schoolyard Chants, Teaching, United Kingdom, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
12 Responses to “No More Teachers! No More Books!”
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June 25th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
It’s a cool song really, Mama Lisa :D
here, In Egypt, we sing lots of funny songs as well .. but I can still remember a very special short cheering, that I’ve NEVER said it before, ’cause only boys used to sing it OUT LOUD at the last day :D
I’ll write it in Arabic, then the English translation follows ;)
لا مذاكرة بعد اليوم .. لعب الكورة أهم أهم
“La mozakra baad alyoum .. Le3b alkorah aham aham”
English translation: No more studying from now .. playing football is much more important.
I really like it .. if only I could be a little young girl once again to hear my classmates sing it while they are throwing papers up up in the sky :))
Thanks, mama Lisa .. you remind me of my best memories ever :)
June 25th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Thanks for writing Radwa… I like your rhyme!
Re. reminding of best memories… that’s my mission in life!
Cheers! Mama Lisa
June 25th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
When/where I was it was “Three more days and we’ll be free/from this place of misery/no more pencils, no more books/no more teacher’s dirty looks!”
With the number, of course, varying depending on how many days are left.
Today ought to be the last day of school, but for some reason it’s not. No, instead they’re going to make us all drag our lazy butts up ONE MORE TIME on Monday for a miserable half day so our kids can get their report cards. Sheesh.
June 25th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
That’s rough Uly… just keep thinking of the break after that!
June 25th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Ernestine Shargool Montgomerie wrote:
I remember this, not from one of the many schools I went to, but from a children’s book (can’t remember which) I read – must have been the Sixties:
No more Latin, no more French,
No more sitting on a hard school bench!
Thanks Ernestine!
June 26th, 2010 at 6:29 am
We would sing:
“Vive* les vacances, point de pénitences,
Les cahiers au feu, la maîtresse au milieu”
Translation
“Long live the holidays, no penances,
Notebooks in the fire, the teacher (female) in the middle”
*grammaticaly it should be “vivent” in plural since it’s “les vacances” but the word “vive” (“Let/long… live”) tends to pass as a set word in singular.
September 24th, 2010 at 6:03 am
haha, things have changed!
i’m a freshman currently, and at our school,
the chant is the same except for the last four lines;
our says “when the teacher rings the bell, drop you books and run like hell.” and the teachers out side yell “O!” (hello)
hahaha.
<33
March 22nd, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Thanks so much, my mum has been searching for the end to this poem and will be so happy.
November 27th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
[…] the world to me. I adored going to school. On the last day of first grade, when other students were chanting, ‘No more pencils, no more books…’, I cried because school was over. Who does […]
June 26th, 2019 at 8:27 pm
LOVE this! I said it to my son this morning because today was the last day of 5th grade for him. His reply. “Mom, you guys were weird in the old days!” 😳 old days?!? Lol. Thanks for sharing!
January 14th, 2022 at 10:16 am
Nobody mentioned Alice Cooper uses the lyrics ‘No more pencils no more books no more teachers dirty looks’. In the song ‘Schools Out’
December 9th, 2022 at 7:00 am
Lisa (or Ernestine?) above quotes:
“No more Latin, no more French,
No more sitting on a hard school bench!”
Perhaps the book she is thinking of is one of the nigel molesworth/st custards (always in lower case) books by Geoffrey Willans, illustrated by Ronald Searle. In one of these, molesworth quotes the very similar
“No more Latin, no more French,
No more sitting on the hard old bench!”
The books were written in the 1950s, showing that the rhyme has been around for a long time. I have certainly sung “No more teachers, no more books” since the mid-1970s.