But a Statistic: A Slam Poem
Test scores,
Best scores,
Always gotta have the right answers.
They don't know me,
They don't care who I am;
The life I've lived or the places I've been.
To them, I'm merely a statistic,
Sadistic
To fit a quota placed upon them.
ACT scores recently suggest:
We did not do our best!
1 in 4 students not ready to attend college,
Because they "lack" the knowledge.
I'm not gonna lie;
I've been one from
Time to time
Who's laughed at those I've believed are wasting their time...
They apply to reach schools equivalent to my plan D,
Listened to them claim they'd attend school with me
And who'd I be,
If I said, I didn't make fun of them
Because academically, they're beneath me.
But isn't that just one part of what's wrong with society?
Students display different talents, interests, and intelligence...
So why are we all judged by our intellect?
Students can't get into their dream college
Unless their advantage includes celebrity sport talent or a superior mind,
Because of that I'm incredulous.
Students across the country give up on their dreams
And fall beneath,
Just because they weren't good enough
Some don't care, that's fair,
But some who try - they just can't bear
The workload, the hold, the prison that
Homework and lectures and textbooks unfold.
Again, I'm on the other side of the spectrum
Effortless A's and a scoff when kids fail,
But who am I to judge?
Why did I allow myself to believe I had the right
To judge someone because their best and mine
Weren't in the same neighborhood
But I see it now, as college approaches, the defeat when kids learn...
That their dreams are shattered because they didn't
give enough
do enough
spend enough time studying by themselves
to understand what they should have already academically earned.
13 years spent sitting in desks
Taking standardized tests
And begging to be outside
Under bright sunny skies
Instead of feeling trapped inside
four white walls.
A standardized time to make sure
Kids are allowed to let their intelligence take hold.
But when children are not allowed to be children,
And teenagers learn like zombies,
It's scary to wonder where this will lead,
And well, isn't the ultimate goal for us to succeed?
Changing tests to make them easier,
Changing names of standardized tests to dissuade the negativity that surrounds it,
But if you haven't been listening, do it now
You will never fool me.
Teachers so scared of failing,
So scared of statistics that illustrate that even they aren't enough,
Drive to cheating,
Get a figurative beating from the moral system
Funny, isn't it?
How locals who do a more immediate form of cheating
Get in trouble long before any public official
Ever would.
You say you're making tests easier
For me and him and her and them
But really,
Who is the true winner in this fight to achieve?
Easier test scores, better statistics..
Wow, coincidence isn't it?
Look,
I'm only seventeen and I care about our future.
The future of those long after me, even my children, additionally.
Right now, things just aren't right.
And eventually, they need to be.
All this to plead
And to ask for a truce
When you quit pretending to care about children in the public education system and ACTUALLY do,
Then maybe, when we aren't just numbers or facts, we'll continue to do our best - each and everyday with fine instructors who go above and beyond to make the cage of white walls seem open to at least our minds and creativity
I no longer wish to be a statistic, a fact, or a percentage
Part of an acceptance or rejection notice,
I just really want to be me.
And in the public school system,
That's the hardest thing to be.
What an unfortunate moment,
This moment,
When we all realized what it means
to be
Mediocre.
Because even I, number 29 in my class of 370 with a 4.1 GPA, am considered mediocre.
Take that into consideration.
