Not Free To Be You And Me

I have the warmest memories of elementary school in the early 1970s.  My teachers taught to the whole child.  I didn't suffer through tests.  I wasn't standardized.  Yet, somehow I learned and I learned to love to learn.  And, I still love to learn.  And, sometimes, I even learn things from my students.

My favorite memory from elementary school:  one very hot afternoon, a friend's Mom brought her old-fashioned ice-cream maker to our schoolyard.  I'm pretty sure we never worked harder than when we turned that crank.  And, somehow, we still survived and we succeeded in life.

So, here's a version of the 1972 "Free To Be You and Me" to try to capture the spirit of the modern educational "reformers."  In an age of punitive Common-Core aligned testing, children might sing "Not Free to Be You and Me":

There's a land with no bail where the children all fail
And I say it ain't far to this land from where we are
Take my hand, to a jail, where the children all fail
To a jail, take my hand, and we'll test

In a land where the students all fail
In a land where esteem is frail
In a land where children all ail
In a land where the courses are stale
And you and me aren't free to be you and me

Every boy in this land grows to be the boss' man
In this land, every girl grows to be the boss' woman
Take my hand, to a jail where the children all fail
To a jail, take my hand, and we'll cry

[I see a land sad and drear, and the time's comin' near
When we'll test in this land, you and me, pencil in hand
Take my hand, answer wrong, lend your voice to my song
Come along, take my hand, answer wrong]

To a land where the students all fail
To a land where esteem is frail
To a land where children all ail
To a land where the courses are stale
To a land where the children all fail
And you and me aren't free to be
And you and me aren't free to be
And you and me aren't free to be you and me