[Teacher]
Ok class, ok everybody settle down
Everybody settle down
Um, as you all know we've been working
Real hard on getting our school essays done
Does anybody have theirs to read first?

[Sammie]
Mr. Evans, my essay is ready

[Teacher]
Ok everybody, Sammie has the floor

[Sammie]
When I grow up
I wonder if people will be more afraid
To cry than they are to die
Will I be able to see a rainbow
In a smog-filled sky?
Will there be any trees alive?
If not, how will the planet survive?
Will the Internet have a web-site at
www.lifetimeairsupply?
When I grow up
If I got bored and had nothing to do
And me and my son built a canoe
Would water that used to be blue
Be so polluted it would give us the flu?
Will a thousand dollars be enough for a shoe?
Will I have to be like you?
Letting money make a decision
For everything that I do?
When I grow up
Will the existence of dolphins and whales
Just be story I tell?
Starting with "Once upon a time..."
Ending with "Where did we fail?"
Will adults be the hammer and nail?
Will schools be next door to jails?
Will the truth be illegal to sell?
When I grow up
Will anyone be on the news
For anything besides killing?
Will those drug dealers still
Be standing in front of my building?
Will they ever learn how to love?
Or stay afraid of the feeling?
Will tv and music videos
Still raise America's children?
When I grow up
Will innocent kids still be
Wrongfully touched?
Will students go home from school
In a bulletproof bus?
What if children had no one to trust?
That would hurt me so much
And I wanna be happy when I grow up