Lift Off (Minilogue, Monologue, DrumBrute Impact) ft. aum... & D. Livingston Lyrics

Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin

Is a great equalizer of the conditions of men

Horace Mann, 1848

At the time of his remarks

I couldn't read, I couldn't write

Any attempt to do so

Punishable by death

For generations

We have known of knowledge's infinite power

Yet somehow

We've never questioned the keeper of the keys

The guardians of information

Unfortunately, I've seen more dividing and conquering

In this order of operations

A heinous miscalculation of reality

For some, the only difference between a classroom

And a plantation is time

How many times must we be made to feel like quotas

Like tokens in coined phrases

Diversity. Inclusion

There are days I feel like one

Like only

A lonely blossom in a briar patch of broken promises

But hey

I've always been a thorn in the side of injustice

Disruptive

Talkative

A distraction

With a passion that transcends

The confines of my own consciousness

Beyond your curriculum

Beyond your standards

I stand here

A manifestation of love

And pain

With veins pumping revolution

I am the strange fruit

That grew too ripe for the poplar tree

I am a dream act

Dream deferred

Incarnate

And a movement

An amalgam of memories

America would care to forget

Our stories are the ladders

That make it easier for us to

Touch the stars

So, climb

And grab them

Keep climbing

Grab them

Spill your emotions in the big dipper

And pour out your soul

Light up the world

With your luminous allure

To educate requires Galileo-like patience

Today, when I look my students in the eyes

All I see are constellations

If you take the time to connect the dots

you can plot the true shape of their genius

Shining in their darkest hour

I look each of my students in the eyes

And see the same light that aligned Orion's Belt

And the pyramids of Giza

I see the same twinkle

That guided Harriet to freedom

I see them

Beneath their masks and their mischief

Exists an authentic frustration

And enslavement to your standardized assessments

At the core

None of us were meant to be common

We were born to be comets

Darting across space and time

Leaving our mark as we crash into everything

A crater is a reminder that

Something amazing happened right here

An indelible impact that shook up the world

Are we not astronomers

Searching for the next shooting star

I teach in hopes of turning content

Into rocket ships, tribulations into telescopes

So a child can see their true potential

From right where they stand

An injustice is telling them they are stars

Without acknowledging the night

That surrounds them

Injustice is telling them education is the key

So wake up

Wake up

Lift your voices until you've patched

Every hole in a child's broken sky

Wake up

Every child

So they know of their celestial potential

I've been the black hole

In the classroom for far too long

Absorbing everything

Without allowing my light to escape but

Those days are done

I belong among the stars

And so do you

We can inspire galaxies of greatness

For generations to come

So no, no, sky is not the limit

It is only the beginning

Lift off