The Halloween Candy Bar

I have one chocolate candy bar and thirteen children. How do I split it?

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The Halloween Candy Bar

There was only one Halloween candy bar,

And thirteen children who drooled from afar.

The rest of my class was out with the flu,

But that didn’t help me decide what to do.

I thought about dicing it into sweet bits,

But in making it small, no one benefits.

A suitable problem, a teacher's torture:

How should I dole out this chocolaty minature?

I sent them to recess and made them play hard,

While I sat there debating in our small school yard.

Then the student who gave me the most daily grief

Came up with the answer, to my great disbelief.

“Just make it a prize,” he declared with a grin.

I shot up like oil when the drill sinks down in.

“Yes, that is the answer,” I thanked him with glee,

And I called all the children to line up instantly.

“A contest,” I said. “We’re having a contest.

The candy will go to the one who is best.”

The children all listened, their eyes on the bar,

Each of them hopeful that they’d be the star.

I started on spelling, then journeyed to math.

Children dropped out on that long, gruesome path,

Sagging with fatigue as the afternoon passed,

Too exhausted to speak, too weary to last.

Four-digit division, then fractions, percents,

Then onto perimeters, areas, and presidents.

The last three top students hung on like firemen.

The rest went to sleep. I dozed now and then.

But when the clock struck the hour of midnight,

It finally occurred, that event we’d awaited,

Only one student left, for the others had fainted.

I passed him the candy and crashed in a heap,

Vowing to the class, not to be quite so cheap.

For next time I wouldn’t get one tasty sweet,

But a bag full of cookies so each got a treat.

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