Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Jim Jelke said:

I just heard the discussion of “I give them books and they eat the covers” from the tape I made of the WHAD broadcast when I wasn't home. I first heard this in 1962 or 1963. I was working part time as a stock boy at the local Jewel grocery store and going to high school. One of the adult part timers used this phrase and I thought it was quite imaginative. I don't think he created it.

Here's how he summed up his disappointment in his kids: “I don't know. I send them to school, buy them books, I teach them all I know, and what do they do? They eat the covers.” That may not be exactly what he said but it's very close.

I lived in Evergreen Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago.

I am from San Bernardino CA. In the early 50s in High School I heard " Buy them books, send them to school, what do they do they eat the teachers.

I heard it from other students about the hopelessness of other students.

What I read back in the early 60's, maybe in Boy's Life magazine, a cartoon that went something like this:

Says one cannibal chief to another; you buy them books, send them to school and what do they do, eat the teacher.

I always thought it must be part of a larger quote from some gifted writer.