Why 'Convenient' Lies Won't Set Us Free
Dear Diane,
You offer the perfect response. The fact that some of the usual suspects are divided on the "bash the teachers" agenda is good news. It gives us new sources of hope. And I remember that even in a flawed democracy like ours (and is there an un-flawed one?), neither "we" nor "they" can ever declare a total victory.
When I came to New York City in the fall of '65 my friends and acquaintances (like the real estate agent who was helping me locate an apartment) told me that "no one sends their kids to the public schools." Of course, 1.2 million children couldn't all have been orphans, but I understood the code. I hadn't taken it for granted, since my kids had been OK at their prior public schools in Chicago's South Side and Philadelphia's West Mount Airy. So my children spent their pre-college years in NYC's public schools. I grew accustomed to the guilt trips I listened to from folks like Davis Guggenheim, who tells us that "Waiting for Superman" was made to assuage his guilt.
