Cattle machine = education system
Sixteen year old Alicia Moore writes about her experience of the education system which is inflexible and fails to respond to individual needs. Her poem, which appears in 'Insights for A Better Way', vividly illustrates our proposition, 'relationships are better than impersonal transactions'.
is it that I’m just a waste of space, an oxymoron tiptoeing on the balance
it is that I can be replaced, upgraded perhaps by a robot in time, or someone less stressed than I
is it that every time I cry, a part of me dies already, slips away in the tear pieces of my skin
we’re here to help, says everyone
the college, the education system itself that does not adapt for those different
for those who cannot fit the mould
I am a square trying to fit through a circle
perhaps just a blot of ink on an otherwise perfect canvas
but I am unique, and have learned to appreciate my flaws
an obsession with time that maddens my brain everyday
an inability to socialise with a brain that turns white noise every time somebody’s voice hits it
it has come to a point where
I refuse to speak anymore because my voice has been silenced by the masses
because no one understands really do they? does anyone understand another as much as they do them self?
an inability to empathise because it’s all about money
so we can go to school, to go college, to uni, to job to money, money, money
we’re a cattle machine, a never ending cycle
we’re every battery hen in a cage, we’re on a conveyer belt of our making
life is for the taking
so every time someone tells you to just ‘get over it’
remember that you, too, are human
and you should love yourself
put your mental health before a mindset of corruption and the taming of the human being
the enslaving of every mind
I have missed 5 years of education yet I can still read and write, I wrote this poem
in fact, in a test it is more a construction of who can remember the most than who knows anything
who does know anything?
but know thyself
love thyself
all these years of education but no one is taught how to love, love ourselves, love others,
know thyself
that is what it most important
Alicia Moore is sixteen and likes to write poetry and songs. She missed five years of education on and off due to illness and struggled hugely to fit back in to the system and with her peer group. The poem is a reflection of her feelings about a system which she feels is inflexible and only adds to the stress young people feel on an almost daily basis.
