American Dream

It's about growing up as a Native American in a predominately Caucasian community and being told I don't belong in the country I was born in for such petty things like my skin tone. I grew up around all white people and developed their culture while having none of my own.

By Culture from Burke High School in Nebraska

I’m trying my best to be something I wasn’t born to be

I’ll fall asleep and try to believe

Go ahead and keep your American Dream

You can take what you want from me

Get me to fake an identity

Go ahead and keep your American Dream

I can’t speak, I can’t think

About anything other than the words you taught me

I’m a machine

A manufactured beast

With no self-sufficiency

Feathers in my hair blow away as quick as everything I could be

Slowly mold me into an American Dream

I can’t breathe

I’m down on my knees

While you walk all over my ancestry

I’ve been writing American Dreams

And sending them off to sea

So the next generation can possibly learn from me

This is not what we were meant to be

While everything burns away with bright orange gleams

Hopefully we can restart everything

Be the new American Dream

Burke High School

Poetry Study

Poetry Study is an elective class in which students read and write poetry.

More responses about "culture", "perspective", "racial justice", "representation ", and "values"

Surprise Me

My American Creed

I believe that the American Creed means that we have a duty as Americans to fight to defend the core values the Founding Fathers instilled in the Constitution, but more importantly, we must respect one another.

How America is Represented

How America is represented using symbols, words and phrases

What is your American Creed?

A poem describing what the American Creed means to me.

What the American Creed Means To ME

I wrote about the impact of the American Creed on ideologies about America and what values every American has. The essay also includes how to perfect the American standard

What Shapes Us

America provides many opportunities for those who are willing to work. “Good luck is the residue of hard work. The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

The American Creed

My response describes how their are similarities in everyone's view on the American Creed.

Interview with exchange students

I’m an exchange student from Germany and I’m really happy to be here in U.S., but I was wondering was other exchange students think about the U.S. and what they experience are compared to their different background and their different countries.

What Does It Mean To Be An American

This is an essay about what it means to be an American.

How can your actions show the american creed

This speech can help you understand how you can show american creed through actions. Like your ever day life the american creed.

Why Our Values Are Our Values

How we view the values of others.

Racism in America

Racism is a huge problem not only around the U.S, but the world. racism has a huge impact in the history of the U.S. In this article, I'm trying to find out what started racism, what influences racism, and how to end racism.

Have American Values Changed?

Look at the larger picture to acknowledge, through the generations, how customs and values came to be and can be tied back to the idea that America’s composed of individuals, with their own ethnicity, customs, traditions, and opinions; honoring how they have been modified.

The Country that isn't free...

My Essay shows the facts about our country and how African Americans are treated. My essay shows stats and gives an insight to our community and the challenges we face as a culture.

American Creeds Future

American identity and culture will be shaped not by the adults, but the children and immigrants that are moving into society.

Native American Heritage

I come from a line of Cherokee Native American heritage including people like the famous Sequoyah and Chief Young Tassel! My family and many others were forced on the Trail of Tears and discriminated because of their different cultural backgrounds.

What Rights Do We Have As Americans?

The rights of most people living in the US weren’t fully honored as much as the Constitution said it would. One right that is not fully honored is the right of having equality in this country. Till this day many African-Americans still suffer from racism.

What is an American?

Being an american is helping each other, being a family, and being a strong country together. What do you think is an American?

Our Family's American Creed

There are many ways I connect to the American creed. I connect by my Native Americans heritage, my grandparents who served, and also our grandparents who made many contributes to Kentucky.

A Foreign Perspective on the US

A YHS student interviewed students from Spain and England while on a school exchange and asked them how they perceived the American Creed. She also asked them to share their thoughts on whether the US was succeeding as a nation.

What It Means To Be American

What being american means to me and others.

What does it mean to be an American?

Black men are constantly harmed by authorities who are supposed to be there for help and security because the authorities are set in a position for African Americans to continuously fail.

Requiem for the American Creed

A Poem about some of the flaws in America, with some chunks of good in it.

American Creed

What it means to be an American as a multiracial individual.

American Creed - Diversity

My American creed is to be a real American, one needs to live to their full potential and strive to be the greatest they can be. My interview with my parents, about their different cultures, helps me understand how they are the American they are today.

Writing Our Future: American Creed is part of the National Writing Project’s family of youth publishing projects, all gathered under the Writing Our Future initiative.

Writing Our Future projects are designed by educators for educators and the young people they work with. Intended for use in schools, libraries, and other educational settings. All projects are COPPA compliant and educator-managed. NWP is committed to supporting young people’s writing and civic participation by providing a safe and supportive environment for youth writing, media creation, sharing, and publishing.