Uncommon Comments on Common Core

We are the 21st century kids

Where NCLB controlled what we did

Defined by lines not showcasing our minds,

But tests of design since this act was signed

Creativity, curiosity

Expressivity, virtuosity

You now have four choices: A-B-C-D;

Which part of our voices may be esteemed?

Year after year, on a questioning quest,

Only to hear, "That won't be on the test"

Teachers pushed standards— as to not get fired,

Reaching for candor facing inquires

Breaching a slander, but they grew dire,

Cause young minds had yet to be inspired.

“There's the whole world to explore and be yours!

But what matters more are Common Core scores.”

Yes! The solution for wandering brains

Must be medication trying to contain

Every grain in their veins that gets called insane

You maintained attention, yet you restrain

Their lust for life, their need to entertain

All to attain what goal? Could you explain?

Is it so that a student will learn more?

Because if so, they won't learn when they're bored.

A proper education is achieved through stimulation, across the nation.

Are you listening, administration?

Public schools have had a disadvantage

Now Betsy DeVos has somehow managed

To step back, threaten their sole existence

Us public school kids know what we're missing

We want the arts to be appreciated

It's not hard once you start to equate it

Just because you got heart doesn't mean you're not smart, it's time to be a part of the new age of savants

—

Victims of the system will not stand down

Will not give up, just cause a test wouldn't allow

Them to show their true potential

The restrictions, the limits, are really not that essential.

Who cares that a test is standardized

If it's causing these kids to hate their lives?

We should be promoting ideas of growth

Maybe then, school will be an act that kids won't loathe

Instead of focusing on only what a college wants

Instead of telling us to think for ourselves then tell us we're wrong

Instead of preparing us for Industrial Age factory jobs

Instead of telling us to dream on and on until our dreams are gone

—

Our minds are much greater

Than any number on a paper

Than any SAT score

Or AP report

They create cheaters

When inside we're leaders

A generation of hope and acceptance and peace

So it's time for our standards to increase.

And if you disagree with me, that's okay,

Go and talk to the NEA.

—

BONESY