Why can we not dream?

I did not like this poem at all when I wrote it, but I feel the message needs to be shared, feel free to criticize this. That way, even my worst can be improved on so i can better myself as a writer.

Does anyone remember imagination?
Does anyone remember the endless
Free hours of whatever ball in the backyard
Or the water fights that would go until the sun
Had sunk so far beneath the ocean of the night sky
That the world seemed cold,
And the mothers beckoned us to come inside
Before our fragile bodies became
Overrun with the sickness of too much fun?

Neither do I.

I was reminded today of what we once were
And that was young
And when you are young
The world is actually what you believe
I saw my brother think up a pretend army to battle
And after I got over the fact that my brother could only imagine
Death and destruction
I wanted so badly to join in
I wanted to know
Not think about
But know that there is army to do combat with
And defeat in the name of my confidence and enjoyment
Yet it seems as though, I may be the only one
Because everyone else wants these young minds to
Grow old and mature
They are put into school and churches
That shape their minds and cognition
Into what others need them to be
Parents begin to discipline any activities that show
Creativity, because it is a threat to their control
And it seems that parents have started having children
To control them rather than raise them
Because they all want to have a successful legacy
They want a prodigy
Or a miracle
Or an inconceivable gift that they can claim rights to
But no one wants to have a child
No one wants original thought, creativity, and most of all
Imagination
Because those things are a menace to the society
In my elementary school
A girl was sent to the principal’s office
For writing a fictional tale
About a girl at school who hit a teacher
For being oppressive
For ceasing to allow children to dream
However that child
Could still dream
And that scared people
Because she was already supposed to have been stripped
Of that gift that children have been blessed with
And it should have been replaced with meaningless
Dates and numbers, they would never need
Because if one child dreams
He might change things
And if things change, parents everywhere would
Lose control
Because a child would be lured in by the opportunity
To be themselves
See today, that decision, does not seem possible
It seems we have to be something
Or someone
Or somewhere
To be happy and successful
And I believe that it is the reason that strips this vision
From our untainted minds
Back then, we did not have to do
Or say or be anything at all
We were not expected to be great
We were just expected to be
I feel as though we have forgotten
How to just be
Because we are so caught up
In what we are
Required
To become.