Colored red green or gold
With itemized sections detailing her growth.
Please don't show her the words
Unsatisfactory
Or average
Or even above
These are grown up words
And I'll tuck them in my pocket
And reflect on them
As a parent should
But please don't show my eight year old
Any charts and graphs
Made to display her knowledge or lack thereof.
Instead,
Show her picassos colors
His cubes and blues
And see if she has a color
That shy would like to try to turn into a period.
Then take the drawing that she painstakingly
Marked and erased and redrew
And hold it up next to a Surrealistic brightness
That will make her own look upside down and
Find it's greatness.
Please do not show her
Data
Scores
Means and modes
Instead,
Show her Fibonacci's flowers
And honeycombs
Discuss the ideas of outliers
And let her try to reinvent the clock.
Who thought of 60 anyway
And what if time could stop?
Please do not ask her
To bubble in a test
Or stay in lines
And if she must
Then please take the test outside
And not under a stale light next to a window with recess calling.
Take her mind
And mold it,
Teach it -- yes
But please don't show her
Anything standard.
Instead, let her show you
Everything that isn't.
When she picks up the turtle and sees its feet keep crawling
Let her discover why
His head pops in and out.
And what if Her dog could do it to?
Let her try.
And please
Let her fail.
Let her flop.
Even, some days, let her cry.
But please let's not have it be
For percentage
For a 4 question standardized benchmark mess
With size 8 font and illogical wording
And randomized information
From a short selection she has just read.
Make her read read read
And then let her write write write
But not with itemization and standardization
When her thoughts are so wanting to soar.
Give her a character to love
And a kite to fly at recess
Have her do it
On her own-
And make her see that she can't.
Then play some music and have her decide
Which song sounds like her favorite story.
Show them how our cores are common
But how our minds defy definition.
Make small hands make sense of the world
By touching soil and seeds.
Let them discover plants will grow
Even if they don't believe.
For ther is power in defiance
And childhood should be about
Exploration, questions, and guidance
Not testing or alignment.
Please, show my daughter the world
And nothing less.
