A new slogan has appeared from the ranks of educators who know the new education reform movement to be misguided, uninformed, and powerful: "Those who can, teach. Those who cannot pass laws about teaching."
This is a parody of the demeaning, "Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach." It is this saying that is at the heart of the cultural disrespect that much of the U.S. holds and voices about educators, but the newer slogan, in the second part, hits the key problem with how our schools are run and who takes the blame: The reality is that teachers in K-12 U.S. public education have little autonomy and professional power--and that is even more pronounced today than 40 years ago--but the architects of how schools are run, politicians and self-appointed education experts, have somehow shifted all the blame and accountability onto those teachers who are mandated to implement the misguided policies dictated by elected officials, who are overwhelmingly without experience or expertise in education.
But the problem with education policy and reform debate is much deeper than that.
As I have been documenting in a series labeled "Legends of the Fall," public discourse
