Dylan Garity – “Rigged Game” (NPS 2013)

Every day when I was five, my older sister would play teacher.

Her students were me, my stuffed rabbit and an American girl doll,

She’d line us up at the end of the bed

and teach us whatever she’d learned in school that day.

Now, she teaches ESL at an elementary school in Boston

and every week she tells me stories about her students.
Ana does not know how to read in Spanish, much less English

but she still wants to be a writer when she grows up.

Juan chooses to stay inside and study at recess

so that one day he’ll be able to teach his own brother.

These kids are good organs in a sick body.

In 2001, No Child Left Behind

gutted bilingual education.

Students who have been in the country for one year 
are now expected to perform at grade level 
on standardized English tests.


My sister is not allowed to instruct them in Spanish.
If the kids don’t jump high enough, the school loses money

Improving a school by picking its pockets

is like tuning a guitar by ripping off the strings.


Learning to read in a new language 
before you can even read in your own

is like learning to walk while a pit bull is chasing you.


Like learning to sing with the conductor’s fist down your throat


This year, for my sister’s birthday,

I bought books for her students.
A poem on one page in Spanish, the next in English.

She is not allowed to help them read the first.

Their heritage is a banned book



Learning to read in a new language 
when you can’t even read in your own

is like trying to heal a burn victim by drowning them.

We are telling these children

who have spent their whole lives in the deep end

that they’ll learn how to swim if they just float out a little farther.


In the 1980s, American slaughterhouses 
began building corrals in curves, 
so no animals could see the blood at the end of the track.

This is how we kept them moving forward.
In 2001, we began building the hallways of our schools in curves.

This is how we keep them moving forward.


You never learn, you fail the test

You never learn you fail the test

You never learn, you drop out.



I know, I am lucky enough to be one of the winners of this game

I was handed a head start

and a rulebook in my own tongue


but the winners of a rigged game

should not get to write the rules.



On the television,

some senator preaches that throwing money 
at an “urban school” is like feeding caviar to your dog.

They just won’t know how to appreciate it

After all, if these parents can’t take care 
of their own children, why should we?


Well tell that to Ana

who has my sister translate newsletters aloud to her father

because he, too, was never taught how to read


Tell that to Juan

whose mother and baby sister are still in Guatemala

whose father works three jobs



My sister tells me school is the most stable place in these kids’ lives.

She has been a teacher since she was smaller than they are.

but since when does being a teacher mean having to swear not to help?


Since when does being a teacher mean having your hands tied

as the schoolhouse burns to the ground?

We are leading these children along a track built in circles

as their lungs fill with smoke

telling them it is their fault 
they can’t find a way out.