WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL TODAY?

WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL TODAY?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Nehru never told a lie,
I learned that soldiers never die,
I learned that everybody’s free,
That’s what the teacher said to me,
And that’s what I learned in school today,
That’s what I learned in school.
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends,
I learned that justice never ends,
I learned that murderers die for their crimes,
Even if we make a mistake sometimes,
And that’s what I learned in school today.
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned our governments must be strong,
It’s always right and never wrong,
Our leaders are the finest men,
And we elect them again and again,
And that’s what I learned in school today.
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that war is not so bad,
I learned about the great ones we have had,
The ones with Pak and the ones with Cheen
And how it must make me preen,
That’s what I learned in school today.
(An anonymous poem which uses the ingenious device of the child’s voice to show how schools become unquestioning accomplices in the furtherance of political agendas in the classrooms, from ‘patriotism’ to the ‘power of the state').