Why I Believe In Independent Learning (Final Draft)

"much have I traveled in the realms of gold.'

John Keats

we learned the things we didnt feel

and watched them run from reel to reel

and this is what they called free education

to sit in rows precise and neat

to be condemned for being sweet, quiet

introverted (though Carl Jung meant it as a complementary

state)

or for anything else they can magnify, berate with a shrug or a

sigh with a roll of the eyes toward the popular kids;

to take just a sliver from out of your pie.

they hate your precocity

so they label you a monstrosity

for you on their

microscopic slide have got to be identified

so that you can be controlled. restrained

from traveling in the realms of gold

all, all on your own

("not enough sense to come in from the rain")

ahead of the others.

they call this grading on the curve

and you're in trouble for using "big words"

too early

as they watch your every move, observe

you meticulously in order to

say or to infer in 25 words or less

behind the hush hush doors where you're no guest

that you're disturbed and a social mess

because really, what else can they do with you

who daydream about the universe instead of the pep squad,

when you're so small as to be absurd

and living without a lesson plan at all.

mary angela douglas 17 august 2019

P.S. I thank God for all the teachers that WEREN'T like this.
But who were happy to find children who could learn so much, on their own.