I'm a guest teacher.
A guest here –
this isn’t my school
these aren’t my students
and “I would let you work in groups but your teacher said not to.”
No.
Don’t talk.
Don’t laugh.
Don’t leave your seat.
Don’t look at your neighbor.
Don’t put down your pencil until I tell you to stop writing.
No.
You can’t have more time.
You can’t check your cellphone.
You can’t go to bathroom because you used your hall pass last week.
Sit back down.
Stop talking.
Get to work.
There’s a girl in the 2nd grade
Who sits on the very front row
She spends math time
“reading because she doesn’t do math with us.”
In the hall during language arts
She learns “her level” of math
And strangely
Her writing skills are suffering too
No.
She can’t learn anything.
She’s not smart.
The students walk in looking tired
Unenthused and nonchalant
They sit down and put in their headphones
And count the seconds ‘til the bell
The only thing worse
Than losing their phones
Is getting their calculators taken away
No.
We can’t do it on paper.
We never learned how.
And that’s just the 8th grade
I see students scolded
for using their own brains
if you don’t conform
you will receive a failing grade
What are grades anyway?
The instructions you obey?
How closely you follow somebody else’s ideas?
Instead of thinking up your own?
We teach students to listen
To obey and do what we say
To use the formula and follow the rules
But never how to figure it out themselves
Then we blame their parents
For not teaching them to blend in
For allowing them to express themselves at home
Because “that’s not how we behave at school”
No.
You can’t be you at school
You’re here to learn
how to be just like everyone else
But it’s not my responsibility
these aren’t my students
this isn’t my school
No.
I can’t fix anything
What could I change?
None if this is my fault
I’m here for the day
Then I walk away
So if it’s not my responsibility
and it’s not your responsibility
Whose is it?
