Here in America in every single state, they have a set of standards for every subject. A collection of lessons that the teachers are required to teach by the end of the term. But the greatest lessons you could ever teach us will not come from your syllabus. The greatest lessons you will ever teach us, you will not even remember. You never told us what we weren\u2019t allowed to say. We just learned to hold our tongues. Now somewhere in America there\u2019s a child holding a copy of \u201cCatcher in the Rye\u201d and there is a child holding a gun. But only one of these have been banned from their state government. And its NOT <\/u>the one that can rip through flesh, it\u2019s the one that says \u201cFuck you\u201d on more pages than one. Because we must control what people say, how they think. And if they want to become the overseer of their own selves, then we\u2019ll show them a real one. And somewhere in America, there\u2019s a child sitting at his Mother\u2019s computer reading the homepage of the KKK\u2019s website that\u2019s open to the public. But that child would have never read \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d because the school has banned it for its use of the \u201cN word.\u201d Maya Angelou is prohibited because we\u2019re not allowed to talk about rap in school. We were taught that just because something happens, doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s okay to talk about it. They build us brand new shopping malls so that we\u2019ll forgey where we\u2019re really standing. On the BONES of the Hispanics, on the BONES of the Native Americans, on the BONES of those who fought just to SPEAK! Trans Continental Railroad to Japanese internment camps, there are things missing from our history books. But we\u2019re taught that it is better to be silent than to make them uncomfortable. Somewhere in America, private schools girls search for hours through boutiques to try and find the prom dress of their dreams. While kids on the Southside spend hours searching through the lost and found, because winters coming and that\u2019s the only jacket they have. Kids are late to class for working the midnight shift, they give awards for best attendance, but not for keeping your family off the streets. Kids will call your music \u201cghetto,\u201d they will tell you, \u201cyou don\u2019t talk right,\u201d then they\u2019ll get in the backseat of a car with all their friends singing about how they\u2019re \u201cbout that life\u201d and they\u2019re \u201cbad and bougie.\u201d Somewhere in America, schools are promoting self-confidence while they whip out their scales and shout out your body fat percentage in class. While hefty girls are hiding away and the slim-fit beauties can\u2019t help but giggle with pride. The preppy kids go thrift shopping because they think it sounds real fun. But we go because that\u2019s all we got money for, because Momma works for the city. Momma only gets paid once a month. And even with all of that she has to deal with getting beaten to death by the man she claims she \u201cloves.\u201d But apparently he feels the same way. Somewhere in America, a girl is getting felt up by a grown man on the Subway. She\u2019s still in her school uniform, and that\u2019s part of the appeal. It\u2019s hard to run in new socks and Mary Janes and all of her male teachers know it too. Coaches cover up star-players raping freshmen after the dance. Women are killed for rejecting dates. But God forbid I bring my girlfriend to prom. A girl is blackout drunk from the after party. Take a picture before her peers wake her. How many pencils is your sanity worth? What\u2019s a 4.0 to a cold jury? What did you learn in class today? Don\u2019t walk fast. Don\u2019t speak loud. Keep your hands to yourself, keep your head down. Keep your eyes on your own paper, if you don\u2019t know the answer, fill in \u201cC.\u201d Always wear earbuds when riding the bus alone. If you feel like someone\u2019s following you, pretend you\u2019re on the phone. A teacher never fails, only you do. Is America honest or do we just bask in sin? Because in every state in America, the greatest lessons are the ones you don\u2019t remember learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
a reflection by [mykailyn] <\/p>\n
Here in America in every single state, they have a set of standards for every subject. A collection of lessons that the teachers are required to teach by the end of the term. But the greatest lessons you could ever teach us will not come from your syllabus. The greatest lessons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":624,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/ripple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}