Regurgitated Culture (Gaining A's)

Regurgitated Culture (Gaining A's)

Do to not tell me
That I didn't succeed
When a kid with low test scores
Finally learned to read

Learned to read
Learned to want to read
Learned to love to read

Do not tell me
That I failed to see
The needs of my students
When the kids with the C's
Finally learned to love what they see

In others
In themselves
In what it means to be free

Free of a regurgitated system
Ruled over by dictators
Hiding behind the title of Policymakers

Hiding in their gluttonous bank accounts
While the children they're supposed to serve
Starve for personalized enlightenment

So what, you can't
Solve the equation their way AND
Write the greatest essay their way AND
Be the next award-winning historian their way AND
The next Nobel scientist their way AND
The star athlete AND
The one with the most community service hours AND
The one with straight A's AND
The number one in the class AND
A loving brother or sister AND
A devoted friend AND
Club president AND
Student government leader AND
Scholarship winner AND
Do all of this without

Without sleep
Without nutrition
Without love
Without compassion
Without kindness
Without time

So you can't be everything all at once
Without losing everything you are?

Something not even a Policymaker
As soulless as they may be
Could ever accomplish

That no human being could ever be

So, set the impossible standards
And then accuse these innocent souls of failure

Go ahead!

Especially when the accusers are no better
Worse! In fact
Having sold out their virtue for control

Control that isn't even really theirs
Policymakers? Ha!
Try well-paid puppets

A wise person once encouraged us
To be, learn, and grow within your own, personal self

Be good at being you
And work to make sure
That who you are is a part
Of the better tomorrow

The better tomorrow
That those lost to their avarice
Cannot begin to see

Cannot begin to take away
Not so long as we refuse

Refuse to be them
And continue to be us