A Teacher's Victory

From my frustrated years in public and special education

Control! Control! - Our battle cries! 

To dull the mind and blind the eyes. 

Distinction, Division, Right and Wrong. 

Unification is chaos, join our song! 

Free thinkers? What is this, does anarchy rule? 

Free thinkers? No thank you, this is a school. 

Notice our desks, in neat little rows? 

Hear the students reciting facts they don't know. 

They copy, repeat, calculate, and recite. 

This is the way it's always been done. 

Tradition's the substitution for Right. 

We stop them, chase them, and pull them back. 

You call them questions, we call them attacks. 

Their faces are gray, with a thin despair. 

Did we forget to teach somewhere?