The System, by Alezzandra Tesorio
May 29, 2018
To be honest, I don’t care about my grades
Whenever that statement slips out of my mouth
I often get concerning stares and awful glares
that somehow no one could bear that I just dared
to say that I don’t care
I grew up being taught that the most essential thing
In this world is to attend school
To get an education that will serve as a foundation
for a life without limitation
So all I’ve done so far was:
solve math equations,
cite book quotations,
do annotations,
follow strict directions,
and bottle this growing frustration
all for a good semester evaluation
Because that’s the only way
to head to graduation
And I believe it’s safe to say that
I’ve fallen into a trap
of misconception and false information
Don’t get me wrong,
I’m not promoting school is bad
or that you should no longer aim for that grad
All am saying is that there’s a slight
fault in the system in which influences
a student’s development
Teaching us that our
distance starting from zero to the right side
of the number line determines how wide
the door of opportunities will open for us
We allowed the system to
measure our beings in such a petty way
in which by the way features
a negative 0.001% accuracy rate
Then it hit me:
Is this really what we get up for in the morning?
When we expect to gain learning but only turning
into a point earning, score monitoring, medal striving individuals
with little to no understanding of the real meaning of success
That success comes if you’re the best
at a test out of the rest but in reality the
guy two seats away from you only guessed
and he’s proclaimed the best
While you’re sitting there all stressed
after studying for the test
that only blessed you with second best
Now tell me? Does that mean you’re far from success?
Of course not!
But every year students are given
report cards that are
focused on defining
their abilities on how
to find x or memorize facts
that soon they’ll forget
Leading some of us into thinking that
grades sinking means binge drinking
slowly followed by the future shrinking
Cause admittedly,
Some of us already gave up
because of the way were trained
To all be the same
Forced to walk in one lane
as they slowly drain
originality from our brain!
That was supposed
to let us attain
the true gains in life
Now see, this systematic instruction
is probably not gonna to change
anytime soon
But you’re allowed to go out of tune
and not let your collection of failed
tests label success and
mess with the rest of what’s ahead
And to be honest, I don’t care about my grades
cause every report card I own says I am not
“good enough” to do this or to be that
When in the first place I wasn’t
meant to do things that are limited to what
that card says I need to do in order to achieve
I think knowing that already won me
thousands of victories
‘Cause we are worth more than just numbers.