Row on row, row on row,
Row on row stationed
Sick at their monitors
Sat the six hundred.
“You may now type your Username”
Said the test proctor.
Set up for failure
Sat the six hundred.
“Enter your password key!
“Mercy upon you!
“During the testing
“No one can help you.”
Someone had blundered.
The unspoken truth. But
Theirs was not to make reply,
Theirs was not to reason why,
Theirs was but to do or die,
Theirs was but to try and cry.
Set up for failure
Sat the six hundred.
Text to the right of them
Complex, out of context,
Bubbles in front of them,
Plausible answers,
Tricky and tortured,
Boldly they bubbled and well
Though smack in the mouth of hell
Sat the six hundred.
This is what reading means,
Now that Gates/Pearson
Has reified testing
Far beyond reason.
Pearson not persons.
Plutocrats plundering
Taxpayer dollars
Spent to abuse.
The children are used.
They bubble and squirm
To reveal their stack ranking
And never again
Will know joy in learning
Never again
Humane joy in reading
And writing, no never again,
Not the six hundred.
Text to the right of them
Complex, out of context,
Bubbles in front of them,
Plausible answers,
Tricky and tortured,
Boldly they bubbled and well.
Gritfully slogging through hell
Sat the six hundred.
When shall their innocence,
Innate curiosity,
Joy in their learning
Ever return?
This never shall be.
Theirs is to gritfully
Show the obedience
Proper for proles,
Their preordained role
In the New Feudal Order.
Standardized children
Standardized minds.
Common, not great,
Though sufficient to serve
The ends of the state.
Lost to themselves
And the fruits of their labors.
Honor this children’s crusade.
Honor the price they paid.
Remember when they played.
Our once-young six hundred.
Copyright 2012, Bob Shepherd. This piece may be freely reproduced as long as it is reproduced in its entirety, without alteration, with attribution to its author, and with this copyright notice.
For more pieces by Bob Shepherd on the topic of Education “Reform,” go here: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/category/ed-reform/
For more pieces on the teaching of literature and writing, go here: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/category/teaching-literature-and-writing/
Bob Shepherd | Praxis 
…which is the main reason why we home school our kids! Theirs was not to reason why, but bless them, they did anyway (the deciding moment came when my son, now 19, came home from school one day when he was in the 6th grade, and with tears of frustration in his eyes, told me, “School is getting in the way of my learning”), and certainly taught me a thing or two!
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School is getting in the way of my learning. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Smart boy!!!!
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Pingback: Bob Shepherd: The Six Hundred, a Riff on Tennyson | Diane Ravitch's blog
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
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Loved this satire. I think I would have referenced the 529.34672 instead of the 600.
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Oh my Lord, Roy. Rolling on the floor laughing here. That’s freaking great.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Thank you!
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