School Ghosts I - an art work by T Newfields

School Ghosts

Many schools are ghost-ridden
& full of muffled screams.

In their barren walls you'll find
teachers staring into space blankly.

With sarcasm some inquire,
"Will form of torture do you need?"

Others whisper disjointedly,
"Things are rarely as they seem."

Sauntering across musty corridors
crowds of student-ghosts fade
in-and-out of the walls.

Looking at them, I wonder
"Why are schools so haunted?" &
"What turns people into pale, auric balls?"

Why does living inquiry so easily fossilize
into doctrinal lies?
Why do many schools seem like
graveyards in disguise?
Melissa: This talk is morbid.
Satoru: Well, it's amazing how intellectually dead some schools are.
Tim: Isn't that what authorities want?
Satoru: I'm not sure . . . but without curiosity and a willingness to challenge old beliefs, both people and institutions fossilize.
Melissa: Fossilized thoughts – they seem like the stuff of civilization.
Liao: Isn't there's an optimum balance between open awareness and pre-programmed belief? It may be inefficient to question everything, but if we rely too much pre-programmed information we're not so different from reptiles. I think it's all a matter of balance.
Tim: Perhaps, but schools seem to program kids for passivity. In the long run, that's not merely ghastly – it's ghostly.



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