[Verse 1] First thing they teach is the line, then the lunch, then the list, by the second week you know exactly where you sit. Not a punishment, a placement, and the placement is a wall, and a nine year old can feel it even if he can't spell it out at all. Room four is cold, room four's got a leak in the roof, and the kids in room four learn something, just not the truth. They learn who gets asked twice, they learn who gets the bench, they learn a teacher's tired voice is a kind of sentence. There's a boy called Marcus who's bright in the wrong way, asks too many questions, wrong colour of clever, wrong day. Nobody hates him. Nobody's even paying much attention. They just move him to the back like a chair that's in the way. [Pre-chorus] It ain't a door slamming shut, it's a door left ajar, and a boy walking past it every day of his life. [Chorus] We say every kid gets a chance, we say every kid gets a start, but the start ain't the same in the same town, in the same school, in the same class, in the dark. Oh, we don't break 'em in a day, we just let it take its time, and the village raised him beautifully, then the village drew the line. [Verse 2] By twelve he's got a folder and the folder's got a tone, and the tone follows the folder into every school he's known. They'll say he's got a temper, they won't say what he's been handed, call a kid disruptive long enough and watch the kid get branded. Fifteen. Half the roster's already gone, they just ain't left, 'cause you can sit in a chair all year and still be absent. The money comes from houses, and the houses came from maps, so an old man's pen decides which kid's gonna get a lab. A boy that can't sit still is a diagnosis in the suburbs, same boy, same block over, is a problem and a burden. And there's no one in a tower twisting this to be unkind. It's just easier to lose a boy than reorganise the line. [Pre-chorus] It ain't a door slamming shut, it's a door left ajar, and a boy walking past it every day of his life. [Chorus] We say every kid gets a chance, we say every kid gets a start, but the start ain't the same in the same town, in the same school, in the same class, in the dark. Oh, we don't break 'em in a day, we just let it take its time, and the village raised him beautifully, then the village drew the line. [Chorus] We say every kid gets a chance, we say every kid gets a start, but the start ain't the same in the same town, in the same school, in the same class, in the dark. Oh, we don't break 'em in a day, we just let it take its time, and the village raised him beautifully, then the village drew the line. [Outro] Ask him what he can build. Go on, ask him. He'll tell you. Nobody ever did.