Forced to Grow-Up: Public Education

This idea of public education

where kids are drowning

in need of floatation.

days spent counting

for our moment of deflation

where our lives are like atlas

forced to hold the world upon our shoulders

left weak, looking hapless

no one is our beholder.

This idea of public education:

the cramming of information

because the only thing that seems to dictate what we do

are numbers

and augmentation

No one is the wiser

where our only sympathizers

live among us

because no one understands

the work laid out in our hands

we are expected to bow down to their feet

say we won’t cheat

smile at the meet and greets.

we are told to stay neat

remain sweet

while we never bleat.

A checklist of expectations

and postulations

as if we are apollo

god of knowledge

as if we are athena

goddess of wisdom

Yet we are naught but mere mortals

these words left carved in our skin

like tattoos forever etched in our brains

these unattained goals

splintering us from within

because it is “always” in our control

We study,

till our fingers bleed black

and our mouth expel facts

A row of prosaic ordinaries

fighting to be extraordinaries

in a world of aberrancies

A mass of grey,

in plaid skirts and grey slacks

creativity held at bay

books piled to the max

a single tear brushed away

And yet we live in a world striving to be unique

so this idea of “unique”

is broken down; turned bleak

that the only way to be unique

is to be labeled a freak

The cry of desperation,

echoing through the shallow halls

ringing in the ears of those akin

and impediment to those alien

This idea of public education:

that washes away what is true.

Makes authenticity a thing of the past,

because the regurgitation

of information

seems to outdo

Yet still we work.

Still we throw hours of our lives away

hunched over the books

just so we can see the number raise ever more.

Still we are dictated by this idea

of public education.

We are forced to grow up,

expected to meet the expectations

that society wants us to jump

to reach.

We are thrown into life,

whether we are ready or not.