The Lazy Student’s Grand Strategy

I
The morning bell began to ring,
The students rushed with books in hand,
But Tom delayed for one small thing:
A nap he said was wisely planned.
“Great thinkers,” he would proudly say,
“Need time to dream before they start,”
Then stretched himself across the day
With little haste and lighter heart.

II
His desk contained no notes at all,
Just crumbs, a pen, and half a snack,
A folded map upon the wall
Showed clever routes for slipping back.
While others studied late at night,
He claimed a different kind of art:
“If knowledge hides itself from sight,
Why chase it with a racing heart?”

III
The teacher asked a question clear,
The class grew silent as a stone,
Tom scratched his head and leaned his ear
As though the answer might be known.
Then boldly rose with noble grace
And spoke with confidence profound:
“Well… in a very general case…
The answer must be somewhere around.”

IV
The class collapsed in sudden cheer,
The teacher sighed with tired eyes,
For Tom could turn the dullest year
Into a storm of strange replies.
He once explained with thoughtful tone
Why homework should be very rare:
“If done too much, the brain’s o’erthrown
And knowledge vanishes in air.”

V
Exams arrived like marching drums,
The hall was tense with quiet dread,
While Tom with pockets full of crumbs
Prepared his most heroic thread.
He stared upon the paper long
As though it held a secret code,
Then hummed a very cheerful song
And drew a map of some strange road.

VI
The teacher paused beside his chair:
“Explain this answer if you please.”
Tom pointed proudly to the air
And answered calmly with great ease:
“Sir, knowledge travels like the breeze,
It wanders free from mind to mind,
If mine appears a little breeze…
Perhaps the wind was left behind.”

VII
The students laughed across the room,
The teacher nearly dropped his pen,
For Tom could chase away the gloom
Of tired minds and weary men.
Though marks were not his greatest fame,
Nor scholarship his shining art,
The school remembered well his name
For joy he planted in each heart.

VIII
One day he claimed a grand design:
“I’ve solved the problem of the test—
If questions cannot trouble mine,
Then surely silence works the best.”
He handed in a spotless page
Untouched by ink or scholar’s fight:
“A masterpiece,” he told the sage,
“Of peaceful thought and perfect white.”

IX
The teacher laughed despite himself
And wrote a note beside the sheet:
“Your wit belongs upon a shelf,
Though learning might improve the feat.”
Tom bowed as though he’d won a prize
And left the room with jaunty stride:
“Success,” he said with sparkling eyes,
“Is mostly confidence and pride.”

X
So when the years had passed away
And scholars spoke of minds renowned,
They also smiled to hear them say
That Tom was always joyfully found.
For though his books were often thin,
And answers wandered far from rule,
He proved with laughter bright as grin
That humor too belongs in school.