Back to School

I’m going back, back to school
And this time I’ll be no one’s fool.
Gonna find my truth and speak it loud,
I’m gonna make my teachers proud.
 
I’m gonna show that what you learn
Shouldn’t be about what you might earn
But how we can build our world better,
How to break free from the fetter
 
Of social judgement bound to you
In every thing you try and do
Saying you’re not good enough
Unless you’re polished, never rough,
 
Unless you reflect a plastic goal.
Forget if you are true or whole
As long as you help feed the beast
Of consumerism, buy stuff at least.
 
I’m back to school, so much to learn
And sure enough, I’ll take my turn
To listen to those I aspire to teach
I’ll read their words and hear their speech
 
‘Cause education should be sharing
Knowledge, skills and love and caring
As we build ourselves a global stage
That’s more than money, less than rage.
 
To those who’d turn it to a chip
For bargaining, who just pay lip
Service to that higher aim,
Reducing it to a political game;
 
Excuse my language but fuck off now
And find another milking cow.
You raped my passion and my health
But I never taught to just earn wealth
 
And so I’ll give my time instead.
There’s value still inside this head
To pass to those who need it more.
I’m not your institution’s whore,
 
I’m a thinking, learning being
And frankly I am sick of seeing
The job I loved sold on the cheap
But there are ways that I can keep
 
The wheels of knowledge rolling free,
Still I can give the best of me
To those who value what I am
Not asking me to fuel a sham.
 
So off I fly, good luck UK,
I really hope you find a way
To fix the system that’s so broken.
Please listen to the views still spoken
 
By those who try to teach your young,
Please don’t still the truthful tongue
That says our kids’ tomorrows should not be
Just today’s commodity.
 
Teach them to learn and love and grow
And question what they think they know
And speak their truth and speak it loud
Whether or not their teacher’s proud.
 
Teach them to be true and whole
To define and follow their own goal.
And when each valued, honest teacher
Is no longer just a preacher
 
For the minds of government,
When a lesson’s a free event
Not blindly following a rule;
Then maybe I’ll come back to school.