Each school day would start off with poems being read over the school's intercom system.
Teachers often read original poetry or their favorite poems to their classes.
And children got the opportunity to write poetry and have it published. Scores improved across the board. The number of advanced and proficient students among the 41 children who took the MCAS test last spring were at totals 20 percent greater than the previous year in the language arts, math and science categories. Only Carlise did better than Sunderland fourth-graders in Massachusetts. Carlisle had a combined score of 749, while Sunderland was 747.