These are things I can't say, or maybe because you don't listen.

I am a human being, a living breathing being.

Not another cog in your machine called school.

Your tests may show how good at math I am, or the words I know,

but it will never show my creativity or ability to lead a group of people.

You will never know what I think of the universe,

or really how I think at all.

The cogs in my mind are closed off to the endless halls of toment that are labeled "school."

You'll never know who I am or what I aim to become.

You force me to pick a college or a job and decide my entire life in one moment that will pass with graduation,

and you'll never know what my eyes have seen,

or if I have the skills to make the world a better place.

All you will know is if I can make your school better because I passed the standardized tests.