There will eventually be a time

When trying to beat answers into brains with forks

or the nearest available analogue, textbooks

Will be seen as inhumane

When rooms filled with sweaty bodies

People scratching away their future with every missed answer

Will be akin to jail cells full of innocents

Scratching away their lifetimes for crimes they didn't commit

When the teachers, who exist to raise the next generation

Will actually be paid enough to care to do so

And the students, who can't solve a grade-level math question

Will actually pay enough attention to realize how valued they are

But for now

I'll watch from the sidelines

As children learn a little

And sadden a lot.

An Average Student's Lament, free verse, 117 words

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