The Ideal School - Anna Catherine Jones, '26
The ideal school is safe.
A school is no place to learn when you are expected to be brave
Brave?
Brave like the elementary students in the Covenant shooting.
Six innocent victims, parents' voices fluting.
Why should a child need to fear for their lives?
A school is no place to learn when you don't know if you will survive.
Survive?
Survive to say the names of the 20 children killed in Uvalde,
20 children's lives spared while the cowardly policemen waited in the hallways.
Surely, the ideal school would lock entrance doors, always?
A school community should uplift their students, reinforce kindness,
Let that remind us of April 20, 1999
15 students died.
Died why?
Because of a community that bullied their peers.
The negativity that drove 2 boys to end a school year,
Mean comments that resulted in eternal tears.
The ideal school is one where teachers are not expected to use their bodies as shields
Let the children live past nine years,
Let the mothers not fear,
Let lockdown drills never be mistaken as real.
After March 27, 2023, our hearts turned to steel,
The families of the victims will never fully heal,
The reality of school shootings became ever so real.
The ideal school prevents violence,
Erases fear,
And creates a safe place for children to prepare for their future careers.
Inside the Barriers of Governance - Gabbie Snell, '25
Inside the barriers of governance
a maze-like account is found
Where the history and tradition of stubborn decisions,
have undergone years of depicting and limiting women
For time
And time
the ideas of control have been instilled into societal stereotypes that women are supposed to live up to
What if I had no choices because you decided how I live?
I’ve been tied up in the chains of the lies that men tell
They try to tell us we have freedom
But I can’t even speak without being called a “dumb slut”
What if I could not work?
What is the point of these hands
The same hands that help carry
The weight of the world
The same hands that make sure that there is food on the table
The same hands that teach my children
The same hands that care and love for the people around me
What if I could not vote
Vote for my life
My family
My future
What if I can not be who I was meant to be
Because I am a women
I go back and forth with the choices
The choice
To Live
To Breath
And to Believe
Maybe this isn’t only
A man’s world
Is There Really An Ideal School - Katie Ann McCanless, '26
We’ve been talking about the “ideal school” all year
But is there really an ideal school?
Why do we want an ideal school?
Because we’re human.
Some would say they want all the kids to learn the same things at the same time
But what about the children who are smarter they could go into honors
Or what about the children who don’t get in then they feel stupid
Should we strive for equity?
Or should we strive for equality?
Why can’t we agree on one way things should be?
Because we’re human.
At the same time everyone should be treated the same
But don’t people who have been oppressed deserve extra?
But then why do those who haven’t been oppressed get less than those who have
But everyone won’t always be treated the same
Because we’re human.
There will always be someone prettier
Someone smarter
Someone richer
Someone who’s more popular
Someone who’s more athletic
And that’s just how the world is
We’re just all different than each other
Because we’re human.
We’ll never fully agree
We’ll never be fully equal
We’ll never be perfect or ideal
But we can always try
Because we’re human
The Perfect School - Gabriel Dean
The Perfect school doesn’t exist…
I mean what even is perfect
Well, the dictionary says that something perfect has no faults
But how can something have no faults?
I mean we feel to this fallen world from God’s own home,
So how can anyone say that something is without fault?
The Perfect school doesn’t exist…
We’re all human
We know what human is
But what about all the times we hate others because of their skin?
How can, Humans, create the perfect school
When we fight over who owns who,
And gets to live the next day too?
The Perfect school doesn’t exist…
With the political climate of today
Nothing is getting agreed upon by the leaders of today
For they come for power and not for the people that built them up,
That gave them a platform to help better the world
But no
Nothing gets fixed
The Perfect school doesn’t exist…
A school could be the most accepting school on the planet
But it couldn’t be perfect.
But how could this be?
If everyone can get accepted then what is the problem?
Well, what about the space it would occupy?
Where would it be?
How they choose, who they choose
Cause it’s not laid out like Blue’s clues,
Something you can easily figure out,
Because of all of the factors to pick someone from a crowd
Some people get skipped on how they go about their day-to-day
Living life like it’s just a game
Maybe no hope for the next day
Thinking they’ll somehow earn their way to fame
But that’s not going to happen
No, it never will
Because someone thought they weren’t good enough
That they shouldn’t get chosen
Because they aren’t perfect.
The Perfect school can never exist
With people and their vices
Making many sacrifices
To take action for a bad cause
To not take action for a good cause
People have accidents
Good and bad ones
But everything has a fault
So nothing is perfect.
So if nothing is perfect…
then how could there ever be a perfect school?
The perfect school doesn’t exist…
But what if we change the meaning
From flawless to complete
This complete school could exist
Not a flawless one
But a complete one
That could exist.
This complete school could have all you’ve ever dreamed of
All the classes you’ve ever wanted
All the opportunities you could possibly get
That could exist
Don’t talk to me about the cost
But this perfect school could exist
Where life feels complete
And not something that makes you feel robotic
Without flaws
Making you get better,
Day after day,
Night after night,
Because you are becoming more complete
Pushing towards completeness
Because that can be possible
Not flawlessness
That is impossible
That’s why that version of the “Perfect” school never exist.
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