Judge Not, Lest Ye - Oh What The Heck, Go Ahead And Judge Already

My wife and I were afforded the opportunity to judge the writing of some high school authors. We were happy to share our opinions and took our job very seriously. Almost as seriously as the students who wrote their poems, essays, and stories. They all shared a common theme, as any good writing contest should: "Diversity Is." We were curious to see what a group of suburban high school kids from southern California would have to say on the subject.
What I was reminded of, almost immediately, is just how much high schoolers know. Their vocabulary was on full display, not unlike a verbose peacock. Every line and every paragraph was littered with adjectives and adverbs, and I wondered if any of these kids talked like they wrote. If so, it would be a very earnest encounter.
There were some that took a more jaundiced approach, pointing out the unfairness of it all and one even went so far as to question why they were being asked about diversity at all, since they were routinely asked to state their race on standardized forms. I felt their pain, but I couldn't fully connect. There's just something about being a teenager that turns all your injustice sensors on full.
And so we read. Some of them rhymed. Many of them made full use of their thesaurus. Many of them sought out our heartstrings. Some of them came close. Then there was this one that tried a different tack. This one didn't target the heart. It aimed a little wider: for our funny bone. It told the story of an intergalactic diversity training. Creatures with six eyes met with tentacled beasts who pulled diamonds out of their ears. It was clever and it was on topic. It made me think about what I know about diversity. It gave me hope. I gave it a ten.