Pretty Good

There once was a pretty good student,

Who sat in a pretty good class;

Who was taught by a pretty good teacher,

Who always let pretty good pass --

He wasn’t terrific at reading,

He wasn’t a whiszbang at math;

But for him educaiton was leading

Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn’t find school too exciting,

But he wanted to do pretty well;

And he did have some trouble with writing,

And no one had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,

Pretty good was regarded as fine - -

5 plus 5 needn’t always add up to be 10

A pretty good answer was 9.

The pretty good class that he sat in

Was part of a pretty good school;

And the student was not the exception,

On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good student, in fact, was

Part of a pretty good mob;

And the first time he knew that he lacked was

When he looked for a pretty good job.

It ws then, when he sought a position,

He discovered that life could be tough - -

And he soon had a sneaking suspicion,

Pretty good might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story

Was part of a pretty good state,

Which had pretty good aspirations,

And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once was a pretty good nation,

Pretty proud of the greatness it had,

Which learned much too late, if you want to be great,

Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

- -Charles Osgood of CBS News - -

(Quoted in There are no Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith)