When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to break free of the corporate chains that have ensnared them, and to assume an elevated station carried by passion rather than greed, a decent respect to the opinions of “higher-ups” requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to seek such freedom.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are born with the capacity to teach, provided they have learned prior, and that those who teach ought to teach from the heart. That to ensure education continues to embody passion and individuality, it is the right of teachers to drop prestigious labels and positions, and to institute curricula that fit their needs and mold to their persons. Prudence, indeed, demonstrates that such a rigid education system was needed in the past–to ensure that even the most basic education met those in need. However, in light of changing times–times focused more on the individual, it behooves educators more than ever to teach in a natural manner that rightfully treats themselves, along with their students, as people of individual thoughts and opinions.

Such has been the patient suffering of Advanced Placement educators; and such is now the necessity that begs of them, now more than ever, to do away with the archaic ways of teaching forced upon themselves. The truthfully brief history of College Board is a history of repeated disservices and transgressions, all having in direct object the profit of the company. To prove this, let facts be spoken fully and candidly.

They have measured the worth of one’s education to a single value, by which colleges are meant to appraise their potential.

They have developed and maintained a monopoly over the education industry in purposefully discreet violation of government regulations.

They have stolen educators’ control over their own curriculum, forcing them to teach what can essentially be reduced to a list of topics that they are forced to string together coherently and cohesively, massively varying in effect from educator to educator.

They have impeded the willingness of students to involve themselves with their learning, replacing the essence of learning to learn with the motive of scoring well on a test.

They have broken the connection between student and teacher by dissolving the opportunity for lessons to feel personal and passionate.

In every stage of these oppressions, and many more, students have pleaded for honest reforms to be made: their repeated pleas have been answered only by the loud silence of educators who have little choice but to be at the beck and call of the College Board. A board, whose goals and actions perfectly align with that of a greedy, disempathetic corporation, is by no means fit to regulate and oversee the education industry. We must, therefore, fight for proper and passionate education of the children of our future, and remove their fragile education from the inconsiderate grasp of a mere corporation.

Editor’s Note: This is adapted from an AP Language & Composition class assignment which asked students to address oppression in our world today by mimicking the rhetorical strategies and style of the Declaration of Independence.