To those of you teachers who say education is the key

Tell me something, who will educate me?

All the young  care about anymore is getting that A

Cramming information to their heads and shots of espresso in their body before test day

Only to forget in a few months what the class was about anyway

Since when did education become less about what you know and more about what you portray

I can’t really say I’ve seen the good done by implementing the common core

No one seems to know more than they did when they first walked into the door

You all read the same powerpoint, speak in the same monotones

Students come to class everyday and hide behind their phones

In 2011, Scott Walker said collective bargaining no more

Since that day you and the administration have been at war

Blind are you to see that the collateral damage of your battle is the students you seek to teach

Waiting for the day to be set free, never realizing their dreams will forever be out of reach

Is this the so proudly boasted of American Dream

Students in poverty blowing their money on drugs to let off some steam

Can’t you tell them there is something more

Something bigger than their minimum wage job, something worth fighting for

In a school where only fifty percent go off to college

I begin to wonder what is the point of all of this knowledge

Do I really need it to succeed

When there are mouths back home I can’t even afford to feed

Is this really what you sought out to do when you declared your major to be education

Do you not see the serious apathy epidemic that has hit this nation

Whatever happened to becoming someone’s inspiration

Instilling in your pupils a drive to succeed, a motivation

Students need someone to care, to inspire them to grow

How can that happen when you sit at your desk ignoring the scars on the wrist of boy whose name you’ll never know

Maybe this why graduation rates are so low

How can real change happen when you stick to the status quo

I’m asking you to do something, to care

Not look at the girl who is twenty pounds underweight and passively stare

Don’t you see that if anyone can make a difference it is you

Abuse walks past you everyday and in your heart you know it to be true

What about that girl in the small skirt that you shame

Not wondering why she dresses that way and who is to blame

And that boy with autism that provides everyone with a good laugh

So helpless is that boy when he realizes that joining in on the laughing is the staff

Bomb threats, weapons brought to school, and fights in the hallway

Yet you still try to convince us there is a reason to stay

It’s been this way since September and it will be this way until May

So tell me when will it ever be my turn to have a say

No one ever told me to find something that interests me and read

No one ever told me to stand up for what I believe in and lead

Instead I was told to sit down, pay attention, and say no more

Tell me, is this the type of education Malala took a bullet to the brain for

Since when has voicing our opinions become such a crime

And debating subject material become such a waste of time

You belittle others because they excel at things different than you

Because what kind of society would we be if everyone did what they loved and loved what they do

Solving binomial equations never made me sympathetic to the troubles of mankind

Cellular respiration didn’t teach me not to seduce men with my body but with my mind

Algebraic inequalities never informed me of the inequalities facing the transgenders in my community

Proper nouns never taught me the proper way to accept responsibility

All I ever wanted you to do was believe me, to tell me I’m more than a test score or GPA

That I could do anything I set my mind to, that the world would be mine someday

To get up in front of the classroom and have something meaningful to say something wise to teach

To tell us that with hard work no dream is out of reach

If anyone can make a difference on the youth of today

It is the teachers whose classrooms for seven hours they stay

We can no longer ignore the hurt, the suffering, and the pain of the young

For these children are the future and their lives have barely begun

I guess what I’m saying is that education should mean something more

That teachers should remember who they’re fighting for

And when that day comes students everywhere will be delighted

As long as they remember education isn’t so much a key as it is a flame to be ignited