Education, today
Just another word for manipulation
Molding our brains
Inane bane
To be a doll in society’s game
Stuffing kids with factory boxed knowledge
Sewing them up and
Sending them into the world without
Hearts or brains in their shells
As if true understanding, problem solving, intuition, courage to speak your mind
Were bytes of information that could be
Cut into little pieces
And spoon fed, force fed down throats
Of sputtering children
They’re drowning
Back pain, eye strain, migraine
Pouring over ages of textbook pages
Dim light late night 3 am study session
Obsession depression
They’re sick
Strung out on stress
Checked out, lights off, no one’s home
School and homework are a full time job,
You know
In fact, it would probably be illegal
‘Cause they don’t have any time to sleep,
Got a lot of homework tonight
Don’t have any time to eat,
Got a few clubs during lunch
Don’t have any time to play,
gunna do some community service this weekend
Don’t have any time to figure out who they are
Which by the way they don’t need to
No one ever really does
But someone told someone that
Teenagers are supposed to get that all figure out
By the time they compose their
Personal statements

You know what
It’s all fueled by
Society, we tell you exactly what to do,
Say, wear, eat, dream
Exactly how to feel, talk, dance, act,
Live your life,
Exactly when to laugh, society
Praying to the college admissions deity
The culture that says, yes
You’re secretary of one club, play two sports,
Speak three languages, take four AP classes, and
Are president of your high school but
What else? What
More
Are you could you should you be doing?
Perhaps have you thought of doing any community service?
It looks good on your application.

I've got a secret to share with you
Somebody started the rumor
That you fail
If you don’t get into a “good” college
A cereal box, brand name, celebrity-
Endorsed college
Emma Watson goes to Brown, did you know?
You’ve got to be at least as smart as her if
You want to do anything with your life
So we all want to get into that box
But that little box is tiny
And amazing kids get
Thin bitter rejection letters all the time
For no reason,
There’s just not enough room in the box
So we all do more
We take more classes, do more
Activities we don’t even like,
To impress someone we won’t even know

But reality is
Somebody else drew
This box for us

Why would we even want to be in the box?

Schooling
Ruling by elite
Pressing and holding down delete
On our free time, freedom, free will to do
What we want
Molding fashioning fastening
With little shiny golden safety pins that say
Just close your eyes until it’s over
Shaping our behaviors and minds to fit
Their interests and beliefs

Education
Once a suspension of such beliefs
A prevention of buying in
Relying on
Trying on other’s ideas
Forgetting to have your own

Education
It’s not about the grade
Holding your own creativity originality
Colors spirit and soul
Up to a standard and saying,
Oh,
It’s a 89%,
Better luck next time
But I am not the A or B or C, not the grade,
Not the bubbled answer on the standardized test
I’m a human being, excuse me
My name is Rewa

Education
When were young
Didn’t know yet
School wasn’t supposed to be fun
Learning was normal
Part of everyday
It was play
It was figuring out how the world worked
Ticked tocked
Imagination exploration
Learning is an integral part of life
But we students are so
Stuffed with ridiculous facts
No fun no fun, bursting at the seams, it’s painful
We’ve all heard our friends say
After that English essay
I am never going to read another book in my life
Of after school
I’m never going to learn anything else ever in my entire existence never again

Education
Instill a little joy
And little jaunt a little skip a little
How-do-you-do-there-Mr.-Sunshine
In your life
Feeding that natural insatiable curiosity
With the luminosity of learning
What committee of taciturn teachers
Decided that learning
Wasn’t supposed to be enjoyable?

And me, seems like I should know
More than anyone else
That that’s what it’s all about
The joy of learning
Not the grade, not the college transcript,
Not the pride of the parent saying
“Well, my daughter’s going to Stanford.”
But even I find it hard to believe it
Society and the school system
They’re screaming the opposite
To this really catchy tune and it’s
Hard to drown out
And even though I’m beating my own
Drum as loud as I can, I’m often
Lost in the pandemonium
Because it takes so much courage and
Strength to march against the grain

Do I have it in me?
After all, I’m only stuffed with
Just-add-water knowledge
Too bad I never found the prize in the
Bottom of the box
Totally missed the joy, the fun, the
Interesting part of the whole endeavor
I was too busy memorizing those facts to
Regurgitate them for that test
That will determine my grade which will
Determine the rest of my entire life
‘Cause you see
We go to elementary school
To go to middle school
To go to high school
To get into a good college
To get a good job
To get a good salary
To buy that car and fancy house and have that
Happy family we see in those car commercials
That dictate the American dream
But always living for the future
Means we will never get there
And one day you’re gunna find yourself Married, and you have the dream home
And you’re sitting there in your
Professionally designed living room
Thank god you finally have the
Couch thing figured out, and the coffee table,
That was just getting on your nerves
And you’re just another
Family of consummate consumers
Compliant citizens of a media dictatorship
Funny, I thought that was supposed to
Equal happiness

When the media tells the masses
How to achieve happiness
Something gets lost in translation

And it all begins here, with the youth
The uses and the wes and the
Thems who control us

Right here with the youth
Right now, sitting at their desks, in the
High schools getting an

Education, today
Just another word for manipulation