By Isabelle Raposo, Grade 5, MA

"Here is your booklet.
You will complete the problems in it.
If you need another pencil raise
Your hand and you will receive one.
Begin."
Rustle, rustle, silence.

Who could dream up boringer questions?
Trees and children, arrows and dots,
Ennui and frustration.
My least favorite class is better than this!
Meaningless numbers, blathering tone,
Confusing, ridiculous directions.

No opportunity to show your
real thoughts.
Scored by a machine with no
sense of humor.
Sit still when you're done.
Mark pointless answers on a
third grade math coloured answer sheet.

Multiple choice on every question,
nothing like an English lesson.
The bane of every kid's existence,
not a grain of good consistence,
what a waste of anything far or near,
that we could be doing right now!

Everyone in the entire school,
Teachers, children, every soul,
is bored past groaning, bored past moaning,
With overtaxed, impatient minds,
we wait for more enticing finds.

But when the standardized torture
ends, all are glad to greet their friends,
And rush around and stomp and shout that
finally they've been let out!