I received an A+ in Class, But I failed myself.

Location

It’s 1 am.

My mother walks up the stairs,

and asks me if I’m nearly there.

I say; “I finished my math,

but I still have so much to do”

She sighs.

So do I.

Times not on my side.

Two papers and one test.

I swear I wasn’t messing around,

 I was just trying to do my best.

 

Fast forward 7 hours.

I’m sitting in a classroom with 20 other students

Listening to a lecture on the history of America,

Learning to find X,

Analyzing a classic poem,

and I am struggling to stay awake

‘cause the last thing I want is for my teacher to think

That I’m not trying very hard

 

I’ve never failed a test.

I’ve never received an F.

I’ve also never been challenged

but we’ve all heard the stories

and it doesn’t take a genius to tell something’s wrong.

The test scores come back

forming barriers so high

they stop students from their goals

and then the tears fall like rain.

We’re all left with nothing, but a transcript.

 

English, Math, Reading, Science.

The difference between acceptance and denial

Do you remember the test?

how about this one…

36.

Just one number

Representing years of study

Meaning the future of a child

Look at our students stressing out

because your score is your future

is acceptance

is scholarship money

and you test kids so many times

they lose their hope.

 

Do you know children in Finland never take standardized tests?

Can you imagine how learning must be

as they study what they please

I wonder what the Finnish would say about the taxes we pay

that do not cover our teacher’s costs

 

The system is breaking.

The scores are falling.

Every year a sixteen-year old girl bends over a prep book

wishing on test scores.

Every year our universities record the test scores of applicants

to see how many students get in for free.

Every year there’s a teacher telling students

grades are synonymous to intelligence.

He has power points from the internet,

Every test a regurgitation of names and dates

At his side there’s a grade sheet

That everyone lives for.

 

Teacher, our grades aren’t representations of our intelligence.

They are our ability to comply with school

Based on memorization and repetition

Staying up until 1 am

Attempting to cram for a test

because we are living for our test scores

GPA is not intelligence.

Students focused on tests and scores do not understand the real world.

We all need to learn.

 

Do we really believe our grades

Will prepare us for college,

For jobs, for research

for the thousands of opportunities

we missed

from sitting in a classroom for 12 years?

 

Look at the test scores.

Look at all the GPAs

and the people who won’t make it

through one semester of college

because not a single class prepared them

 

Listen to the voices of a thousand students saying

“I can't wait until my high school days are over”

Comments

pnyoung2014

Shit you can't say to the teacher scholarship 

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