Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?

**mrsquirrel** · 29-06-2007, 09:25 AM

Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears? by Carl Sandburg

Anybody got the words for this poem.

I have searched high and low. It is a real poem. The writer is listed as having wrote it and even produced an audio thingy with him reading it but I can't fucking find the words for it anywhere.

Pissing me off.

**lom** · 29-06-2007, 09:48 AM

I think that all grownups have beans in their ears!

**mrsquirrel** · 29-06-2007, 09:51 AM

Have you got the words to it?

**attaboy** · 29-06-2007, 09:57 AM

This song used to play on the radio back in the 1960s:

My mommy said not to put beans in my ears!
Beans in my ears! Beans in my ears!
My mommy said not to put beans in my ears!
B-E-A-N-S in my ears!

Now why would I want to put beans in my ears?
Beans in my ears! Beans in my ears!
Now why would I want to put beans in my ears?
B-E-A-N-S in my ears!

You can't hear the teacher with beans in your ears!
Beans in your ears! Beans in your ears!
You can't hear the teacher with beans in your ears!
B-E-A-N-S in your ears!

What's that, you say, let's put beans in our ears!?
Beans in our ears? Beans in our ears!
What's that you say, let's put beans in our ears!?
B-E-A-N-S in our ears!

You'll have to speak up, I've got beans in my ears!
Beans in your ears? Beans in my ears!
You'll have to speak up, I've got beans in my ears!
B-E-A-N-S in her ears!

Hey, mommy we've gone and put beans in our ears!
Beans in our ears! Beans in our ears!
Hey, mommy we've gone and put beans in our ears!
B-E-A-N-S in our ears!

That's nice, boys, just don't put those beans in your ears!
Beans in our ears! Beans in our ears!
That's nice, boys, just don't put those beans in your ears!
B-E-A-N-S in our ears!

I think that all grownups have beans in their ears!
Beans in their ears! Beans in their ears!
I think that all grownups have beans in their ears!
B-E-A-N-S in their ears!

(Ok I did a search. It's not the same.)

**mrsquirrel** · 29-06-2007, 09:59 AM

Where the bloody hell did you find that.

Been looking for over an hour and nothing came up.

Cheers

**attaboy** · 29-06-2007, 10:07 AM

Are you sure thats the song? How did I find it? Because enough of it stuck in my head for over 40 years!

**mrsquirrel** · 29-06-2007, 10:09 AM

It sounds like it how it was described to me.

I can find it mentioned as having been written by Carl Sandburg but I can't find the words.

I presume those are the words to it. Sounds like how it was described to me

**attaboy** · 29-06-2007, 10:13 AM

According to this link it was copyrighted in 1964 by Len H. Chandler

Lyr Req: Beans in my Ears (Len Chandler)

**mrsquirrel** · 29-06-2007, 10:14 AM

"Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?" by Carl Sandburg is one poem that is recommended for beginning and low intermediate adolescent and adult ESL learners. Students portray a husband and wife who ask two rhetorical questions about why children do things that they are expressly told not to do ["Why did the children put beans in their ears..."] [..."Why did the children pour molasses on the cat..."]. Through the dramatization, students can utilize intonation, rhythm, stress, body language, facial expressions, and gestures to convey the frustrated interchange between the disgruntled and bewildered characters [..."when the one thing we told the children they must not do was..."].

Nope it's wrong I was mixing up two web pages I had read.

Still haven't found it yet then.

**attaboy** · 29-06-2007, 10:21 AM

Howabout this one:

My mommy said not to put beans in my ears,
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears.
My mommy said not to put beans in my ears,
Beans in my ears.

You can't hear your teacher with Beans in your ears (etc)
You can't hear your parents with (etc)
Hey, Charlie, let's go and put (etc.)
Hey, Mommy, we've gone and put (etc.)
That's nice son, just don't put those (etc.) I think that all grownups have (etc.)

Here's another:

Dog's got to bark, a mule's got to bray.
Soldiers must fight and preachers must pray.
And children, I guess, must get their own way
The minute that you say no.

Why did the kids pour jam on the cat?
Raspberry jam all over the cat?
Why should the kids do something like that,
When all that we said was no?

My son was once afraid to swim.
The water made him wince.
Until I said he mustn't swim:
S'been swimmin' ever since!

S'been swimmin' ever since!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Dog's got to bark, a mule's got to bray.
Soldiers must fight and preachers must pray.
And children, I guess, must get their own way
The minute that you say no.

Why did the kids put beans in their ears?
No one can hear with beans in their ears.
After a while the reason appears.
They did it cause we said no.

Your daughter brings a young man in,
Says "Do you like him, Pa?"
Just say that he's a fool and then:
You've got a son-in-law!

You've got a son-in-law!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Sure as the June comes right after May!
Sure as the night comes right after day!
You can be sure the devil's to pay
The minute that you say no.

Make sure you never say...
No!

Hmmm... proabably not the same. Good luck in your quest.

**Spin** · 29-06-2007, 11:52 AM

There's a Thai version, with coins.

**Elwood P Dowd** · 27-05-2008, 12:24 AM

I have a recording of Carl Sandburg reading this poem. My recording was made in 1958 and will take a bit of time to locate [I have over 200 hours of these tapes that I made in 1958-60 on a reel-to-reel machine]

When I locate it, I will post the complete poem .

**mrsquirrel** · 27-05-2008, 04:19 AM

^ Go for it.

Out of interest. How did you find this thread? It is a bit of an obscure one.

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 07:49 AM

here's some others...

Four Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandburg

http://www.monmouth.com/~colonel/rootabaga/index.html

the fellow running this website has an email link.... perhaps he might have it...

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 08:02 AM

Poetry

Chicago Poems (1916) [Available full text online at Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more & Google Books]
Cornhuskers (1918) [Available full text online at Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more & Google Books]
Smoke and Steel (1920) [Available full text online at Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more & Google Books]
Slabs of the Sunburst West (1922)
Good Morning, America (1928)
The People, Yes (1936)
Poems of the Midwest (1946)
The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (1950)
Harvest Poems (1960)
Honey and Salt (1963)
Breathing Tokens (edited by Margaret Sandburg, 1978)
Billy Sunday and Other Poems (edited by George and Willene Hendrick, 1993)
Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg (edited by George and Willene Hendrick, 1996)

dunno if it is in one of those full texts.... I suspect it is part of the Rootabaga stories...

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 08:08 AM

shit load of the stories here mate, i havent got time to read or download them all....but might be in this lot, or one of these might be a substitute....

Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 08:09 AM

here's a Rootabaga Stories forum. Ask them.

Rootabaga Country | Where the railroad tracks run off into the sky —as far as the rails go and then forty ways farther yet.

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 08:33 AM

In case anyone is interested, the poem “Why did the children put beans in their ears / When we told children again and again / Not to put beans in their ears. / Why did the children put beans in their ears?” appears as poem # 41 in THE PEOPLE, YES by Carl Sandburg, copyright 1936 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and renewed 1964 by Carl Sandburg, reprinted by permission of the publisher.

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 08:50 AM

some Audio books by Carl Sandburg, that might contain the poem...

linky

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 08:54 AM

Poet: Carl Sandburg - All poems of Carl Sandburg

download all 207 poems by Carl Sandburg...

Free Poetry E-Book:
207 poems of Carl Sandburg
File Size: 801k File Format: Acrobat Reader
To download the eBook right-Click on the title and select "Save Target As". more ebooks >>

**mrsquirrel** · 27-05-2008, 09:06 AM

You know I can't remember at all why I needed this poem either.

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 09:17 AM

Originally Posted by mrsquirrel

You know I can't remember at all why I needed this poem either.

haha!

I know why ! greens for providing the answer...

FECK - I just saw the OP post date! and I wasted a bladdy morning on this too!

Creating Drama with Poetry: Teaching English as a Second Language ...

"Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?" by Carl Sandburg is one poem that is recommended for beginning and low intermediate adolescent and adult ESL ...
Creating Drama with Poetry: Teaching English as a Second Language through Dramatization and Improvisation. ERIC Digest. - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
[DOC] Educator Tipsheet

File Format: Microsoft Word - View as HTML
Why Did The Children Put Beans in Their Ears? by Carl Sandburg ... Poems can be categorized by instructional discipline (science, health, etc.). ...
www.geocities.com/b_msimpson/EducatorTipsheet.doc - Similar pages

[PDF] Untitled

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Included are print and online resources on ESL curricula and standards, classroom resources and ...... Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears? by ...
www.cal.org/resources/archive/rgos/ellresources/ellresources.pdf - Similar pages

**mrsquirrel** · 27-05-2008, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by mrsquirrel

^ Go for it. Out of interest. How did you find this thread? It is a bit of an obscure one.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

FECK - I just saw the OP post date! and I wasted a bladdy morning on this too!

Don't read very well do you.

Thanks BTW

**kingwilly** · 27-05-2008, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by mrsquirrel

Don't read very well do you.

erm,

I guess not.

**kingwilly** · 30-05-2008, 10:00 AM

KW comes up with the goods!

Why did the children put beans in their ears?
Carl Sandberg

Dog's got to bark, a mule's got to bray.
Soldiers must fight and preachers must pray.
And children, I guess, must get their own way The minute that you say no.

Why did the kids pour jam on the cat?
Raspberry jam all over the cat?
Why should the kids do something like that, When all that we said was no?

My son was once afraid to swim.
The water made him wince.
Until I said he mustn't swim:
S'been swimmin' ever since!

S'been swimmin' ever since!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Dog's got to bark, a mule's got to bray.
Soldiers must fight and preachers must pray.
And children, I guess, must get their own way The minute that you say no.

Why did the kids put beans in their ears?
No one can hear with beans in their ears.
After a while the reason appears.
They did it cause we said no.

Your daughter brings a young man in,
Says "Do you like him, Pa?"
Just say that he's a fool and then:
You've got a son-in-law!

You've got a son-in-law!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Sure as the June comes right after May!
Sure as the night comes right after day!
You can be sure the devil's to pay
The minute that you say no.

Make sure you never say...
No!

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