The "Equal" Educational System

“America the great, the land of equality

Where all education is of the same quality.”

People proclaim this with pride,

But this phrase and my knowledge collide.

Because this statement does not always apply to a minority,

Their rights in education denied by several levels of authority.

Their schools, the government does not subsidize,

And these students are taught to do nothing but memorize.

They justify these actions with a score

Because to them an API means so much more

Than a struggling school’s needs and petitions

They would rather use this money to award and give already achieving schools recognition

But based on my experiences

The educational system does not always abide by even this.

I attended two schools with similar scores,

But the predominantly Caucasian the system adores.

These “justified” cuts do not only take our educators,

They rob us of our main mediators,

Between our present and our future.

The counselors who help us see the bigger picture

But these cuts are so “small and don’t matter”,

They are imposed to keep us “others” from climbing the social ladder.

Who will provide us with the “cultural capital” that these students demand?

Obviously not the men in command.

We have fought to be informed of the A-G requirements,

But we face a detriment with our lack of counselors, or informants.

Who makes sure you are taking the right courses?

Without counselors, the system, this newly gained knowledge, so easily disposes.

But say a student makes it past these impediments,

In college, they will find their education to be a detriment.

Long years of nothing but memorization,

And you become a robot, the educational system’s creation.

This is seen most often in under-funded schools,

Because educators feel they do not have the tools,

Or the pay to care enough to educate those children,

So the students are transformed to trained monkeys, no longer men .

What results is the inability to think critically,

It becomes difficult to conjure an idea individually.

Therefore, these students fall far behind their peers,

Something an excelling student in an underfunded school fears.

So when you tell me that education is equal,

I hear being written another sequel

Of silenced and disguised oppression,

Something the educational system will never mention.