EDUCATION

EDUCATION

We don't need no "edumacation"
is the cry across the nation.
Our youth, in anger, shout this declaration
demanding their own liberation.
They'd rather rot in stagnation,
leave the world in desperation
destroying the very foundation
that they live upon.

Screaming about emancipation
they know not of reality
the things they face that they can't see -
they live lives of mediocrity
vacant, meaningless, empty -
devoid of the possibility
of growth.

If an apple falls from its tree,
they wonder not of gravity.
They take the world for granted.
They take what has been handed
to them without ever earning,
without ever yearning
or feeling the burning
to know more
to do more
to be more.

So we must construct an education
that makes sense to this generation
--- begin a sort of cultivation
of wonder and of exploration.
We must begin to change the way
we structure each day,
we must bring back play -
let reading and mathematics
become strategies and tactics
for solving the problems our youth will face
problems of the human race
of hunger and of poverty
of poor and rich society
of clean water and clean air
of peaceful living without a care
of saving wildlife and flowers
of having clean, fresh April showers
of making sure that all feel loved
instead of pressured from above.

All this can come with imagination,
problems solved with information,
and the world improved through the application

of a real-life "edumacation"".

Michelle Balletto-Wooten
© 4-1-11