For a little change of pace, and to re-focus on where our efforts in education reform should be, here is a student-authored, anonymous poem.

I don’t cause teachers trouble,
My grades have been OK.
I listen in my classes,
And I’m in school every day.

My teachers say I’m average,
My parents think so too.
I wish I didn’t know that,
Cause there’s lots I’d like to do.

I’d like to build a rocket,
I’ve a book that tells you how,
And start a stamp collection,
Well, no use in trying now.

Cause since I found I’m average,
I’m just smart enough to see,
It means there’s nothing special,
That I should expect of me.

Nobody ever sees me,
Because I’m in between,
Those two standard deviations,
On each side of the mean.

I’m part of the majority,
That “hump” part of the bell,
Who spends his life unnoticed,
In an “average” kind of hell.