Brightness
Location
Every year, our students grow dim
Their light of knowledge flickering
As they attempt to jump into the darkness that is adulthood too quickly, without preparation
They talk and text and tweet, blocking out anything that attempts to teach them
Something that might make them seem like the children they are
They shorten and mutilate their language to save time
They skip the sciences to learn the anatomy of one another
They ignore history to look solely to the present and future
They scorn math to stay within their circle of friends
All of this is done to be cool
Forgetting about when "cool" was about who you were and what you stood for
So our lights go out even more each year
Until we are all alone in the darkness that has grown around us since we were born
The darkness that is adulthood and maturity
For as we grow up, we are slowly warned of how one day
We shall be on our own, nearly blinded in the fact that we shall be alone
With no help from anyone
And that the only thing that will aid us during these troubling times,
Our only light, will be knowledge
But if we do not have knowledge, how shall we survive the darkness?
Will we all just stumble through the rest of our lives, disconnected from reality?
Who will help us regain that light?
The teachers don't care, looking merely at their salary and physical benefits
And not at the personal benefit of helping young minds grow ever brighter
The schools don't care, looking merely at their budget and their ranks
Not caring if the children don't learn as long as they pass their tests
The tests that show their intelligence as judged by strangers
It does not matter if they can write a musical score or if they can code a program
As long as they know that A + B =Z and that the mitochondria is a powerhouse
And these tests that are supposed to show our supposed intelligence
Are continuously dumbed down to fit our even dumber students
They are fitting this world of academics to fit the student, so that
The schools might seem better for having the "brighter" students who are able to pass all tests
They pretend to stress the student's individuality when really,
They're stressing our ability to conform to someone else's opinion of what is right
And what happens when the students reach the real world, the world beyond school?
What will they do when they find that the world no longer revolves around what they do or will do
When what matters is what you have done up until now
They cannot fathom the fact that they must change to fit this new world
Or be forgotten and forsaken by society
This is why we must teach our children NOW what it takes to be an adult
To show them the importance of knowledge
lest we forget, as an entire generation, what "brightness" truly means.