The Real Basic Subjects of High School

I don’t know who decided

what we are to learn.

All I know is that

they weren’t thinking straight

when they decided that we should know:

organic compounds and physics,

calculus and statistics,

empires and wars,

when teenagers can’t seem to win the wars against themselves.

Why aren’t we taught how to manage our own thoughts

instead of those of other authors

or random numbers on a page?

How is knowing how to solve for x

going to prevent us from going home

and slashing one on each wrist?

How is memorizing the food pyramid

going to prevent us from looking in the mirror

and deciding that starving ourselves is the better option?

How is learning about the effects of pressure when applied to atoms

going to teach us how to handle the effects of pressure when applied to our future?

How can we handle our future if we aren’t taught how to handle the present?

We should be learning

how to survive in today’s world,

a world unlike one anyone has seen before.

We should be learning

how to survive our own anxieties,

before the school system throws us some more.

The youth of today is drowning,

the adults are screaming that we should know how to swim by now,

when there is no one willing to teach us how.