Children are the Future... So They Tell Me

"Children are the future,"

So everyone says.

"Children are the future,"

Show me your proof, then.

Hungry, impoverished

Children on the streets?

Too many in the classroom,

With not enough to read?

Teachers who don’t care

Who only want to teach,

And don’t see the child,

Struggling, just beyond their reach?

“They are more than tests!”

So everyone says.

Then why are our children not learning,

And being left behind instead?

I want to make a difference.

How cliché of me.

But I want to help these children,

And I want to make a scene.

Each child who comes

And sits before my desk

Will sense the love for them,

Know they are more than the test.

Not every child sees,

Not every child knows

How important they are

And how unique. We chose

To bring them here

And we are giving them this world.

The least we can do is teach them

How to be in a world so cold.

So I decided to be a teacher,

One who loves and cares.

Who chooses less pay and security

To teach in schools with less opportunity

Where no one else wants to go.

To give those children who have less

So much more so they don't simply 'cope,'

But instead, set this world on fire

With their unashamed, unbridled, and contagious hope.