What do we gain by standing here

and discussing, evaluating, testing,

controlling

what a four year old can do in the classroom,

I would rather know they were happy and stress free until

they were eleven and not forced into the world

like automatons; their individuality and their creativity nurtured

and not stunted by the rigidity of a system

based on supposition and baseless presumption.

 

At four, I could read more than well enough

and I could make up my own mind

on which football team to support,

disappointing both my father and grandfather in fell swoop,

I could not be bothered with maths, history was a love,

basic French came with time and it allowed for

an amusing morning in the winter of February 2009

when forgetting the word for cow I just mimed cold milk;

you don’t get that sense of personal history

in a café full of laughing cheering

Arab men by being a smart arse.

 

At four, the world should be an adventure,

a ride along a lengthy highway

and stopping where ever you damn well please

to sniff whatever subject takes your fancy,

not to be shepherded into a world judged by the lonely,

bitter and resentful, those whose own childhood

was scarred by the thought of failure, drummed in with

child exploitation by a Government more concerned

with results,

hard, fast and insane driven results,

just to stifle the creative mind,

just to be raised good robots

who never answer back,

who never raise objection

and who never have a single thought of their own…

 

to be four once more and still be regarded

as only being fit to carry a gun somewhere in the desert

and being told I was worthless at eight,

of to look that teacher in the eye and raise a smile,

raise a middle finger and say at least I lived.

 

Ian D. Hall 2015