Freedom in education

Freedom in Education...

Hey, what did you learn today? She expected me to say I learned quadratics or reproduction in my Biology class, but the hallway's and corner boys teach you more than the teachers do. 

       

This isn't an average day, but it's black history month and my school has not one single black inventor, teacher, or any blacks that were the first to do anything in out hallways, but expect me to pay attention in class. 

     

An open heart is better than a transparent book. They figure we learn more from Twitter and TV so they don't even bother to give us books in school anymore. 

        

Old work sheets and snapped pencils, snaps in poetry club make me human. 

     

Take away the Chicago in me and just see the poetic free that they try to put a price on. They say there's no price on education to justify why they keep taking our money. 

       

Sleepless nights constructing projects is the price I've paid for a free education. 

      

  Poetry told me more about life than any of my mothers lessons, school only taught  me to keep my eyes on own paper, yes I'm talkin' Green. 

Red, Black and Green because there was no room to fit my black in their flag.

     

 I spend class time in the hallways and still pass everything. Learn to listen to yourself. Never be afraid to be Bi-Racial and curvy self because the bullies don't know how to travel within your guide lines. Never mind them, stay in your lane. 

      

Don't dumb yourself down because they aren't educated in life. Don't tell them your secrets. Coming to school is what keep you out of trouble. Better a class room than a court room. 

        

But seems like our court rooms are more populated than our classrooms. Schools shut down, but graduated kids smarter than the suburbs. They say because we're poor we're stupid... But we say it takes skill to dodge bullets, run to catch a bus home from school and carry our siblings all on one breath. 

      

But since when did being speechless  parallel us to ignorance when we choose to rap our words instead of cram them into college essay's. When will you learn to look at us as human and not test scores. 

        

Maybe if you talked to us instead of failing us you'd know why we saw our answers as right, but your un colorblind ignorance chooses color over character. Colors are the only thing school has seemed to have taught you. 

        

It is possible to still be an educated fool. And no, this poem is not a permission slip for my generation to act like we're ignorant. That can no longer be in our vocabulary because we are literate. No matter how much or how little we may be we can read and write stupid statuses on Facebook non the less we are literate. 

          

School is something they kept from us so do us all a favor and steal it back. They always blame the black boy in a robbery so you might as well go to jail for having a voice  instead of sticking to no snitching. 

       

Have you ever stood in a third grade classroom, misty eyed with emotions in your throat because the kids only knew Martin and Rosa but the teacher forgot to teach about the one who in the opinion of many was the most educated in life, Malcolm X. They're trying to X us out of their flag. 

       

Adjust your jeans and show them what righteous looks like. We were the first creation under God, but we're proving to not be all that indivisible. 

       

We pledge allegiance of the red, black and green, Our flag, the symbol of our eternal struggle, and to the land we must obtain. 

One nation of Black people, with one God for us all, 

Totally united in the struggle for Black Love, Black Freedom, and Black determination.

   

In education is the land of the free