The school board tells us lies
Promising that they understand
Yet they don’t know
What it’s like
To live in a world
Where you are seen yet never understood
Adults blame their mistakes on us
Yet they have confined us to this prison
For eight and a half hours every weekday
And proceed to send us home with hours of work to finish
Students all over America
Have claimed they would rather die
Than go to school
Has anyone ever thought
To question
The system
And not the students?
We have made countless arguments
Spending years of our lives
Cowering before adults
Who promised us hope
Spending our childhood
Cowering before the injustice
Of the American school system
But our pleas our worthless
We have no voice
We have no power
We are the majority
Treated like a minority
We are the broken, the forgotten, the unseen, the misunderstood, the neglected, the unloved, the belittled, the hopeless, the mistreated.
We are the teenagers of 2025.
We are seen but never understood;
People laugh at our pain
As if our blood
Isn’t on their hands.
This is not America.
This is hell.
-Lucy Danto
Posted in response to the challenge Democracy & Ethics – Writing.
Comments
This is a beautiful representation of what it feels like to be a teenager right now in the United States
Thank you! :)
True, and in the end it's much easier to just blame the students than fix the system, which is pretty unfair. Everything's also based on productivity too, so if you're not productive, you're considered lazy (or, to yourself, even worthless) when in reality there could be legit barriers and/or the standards are just way too high. The truth is, if we want to be happy, would shouldn't be making our very lives all about competitive productivity in the first place. That is a losing game.
Also, love the line "We are seen but never understood"
Thank you so much :) It's nice to know that others understand this feeling. I definitely agree with you on this though, the standards are way too high for students and schools should prioritize mental health over grades. I'm planning to create a series of writing about the injustice in the American school system in hopes that publicity about this issue can make a difference. Eventually, I hope to meet with the head of my school district to explain the impediments we experience daily. Maybe it'll work, I don't know. But I hope that by writing I can make a difference and it's reassuring to know I'm not alone.
That sounds like an amazing plan! You keep at it, and good luck!
Also lmk if you ever need any input on that stuff (proofreading, ideas, ect). I'm totally with you!
Thanks!
An absolutely powerful piece here, and one that holds so much truth. Keep writing and making your voice and opinions heard because it does matter and it is important
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