Schooling Poem by Gary Diamond

I didn't go much on school.
I didn't meet many people that did.
Because although I learned my lessons well
Above average,
It was the people standing outside the gates smoking
That ended up with the decent jobs.

Oh and don't forget that the standards have dropped
The government wanted to get the percentages up
And as the human race hasn't changed enough
They had to cheat and dumb it down
Dumb it down.
Dumber still.

There was the hierachy even then.
The over-emphasis on social status.
The identification of martyrs or pariahs.
Only now though
I give those words any meaning.

It wasn't too hard to pick a passion and run with it
To take it further and refine it, inadvertantly narrow it.
Until the knowledge gleaned benefitted just the self-important few.

That's why I had to stop.
That's why even the greatest minds stop at some point.
They begin to lose perspective and begin to laugh at the loss.
Believing themselves on some new plain.
Out there on a limb
Standing on the wing of an airplane.
It must be cold and draughty out there.

Schooling comes down to being given the basics
Then having to work it out for yourself.
So going into full time work barely at teenage threshold
Is alright as long as the choice was well-considered.

I wish I'd dropped out, somehow.
I think I'd be doing better if instead of a musical instrument
I'd have gone down the shaft with a hard hat and pickaxe.
Maybe the scotch would taste better after that kind of work.
But I'm naturally lazy.