What I Learned At School Today

When my mother asks me what I learned at school today

I reply with a token phrase spoken by each child in every parent’s home.

Nothing

My mother gets frustrated 

And I tell her that she doesn’t understand.

I tell her that the system she sends me to, to learn and grow

Is broken.

I tell her that learned about history but that they left out slavery,

Only teaching us about the underground railroad 

But not about the ones that stayed in the fields

They tell us that all of them were liberated when in fact

Nearly all of them were kept in chains.

I tell her that I went to check out a book

And they wouldn’t let me have it

Telling me that it shouldn’t have been there in the first place

Claiming it was too “vulgar” and too “immature” to be in a school

When what they really mean is that I would become enlightened from reading it

The pages would give me power and I would stand up and move generations forward with the knowledge I had gained.

I tell her that I wasn’t allowed to search about the politics of other nations

I am restricted from accessing worldviews and opinions other than the ones they want me to know.

I tell her that my voice is lost in a sea of censored stickers and black lines covering words, phrases, complete articles of information

So I don’t overstep my bounds.

I tell her that they teach us compliance above all else.

I tell her that when I say I learned nothing at school today,

I mean that we learned a thousand stories with entire chapters torn out

I learned to value silence over revolution.

I tell her that when I say I learned nothing at school today,

I mean that we learned nothing.