In the last year, the national education debate has been occupied by economists, billionaires, hedge-fund managers, corporate columnists and party-politicians –indeed, it seems like the further a person is from the classroom, the more weight his opinion carries.
Call it the Gates Paradox – the power of your voice in the “education reform” debate is proportional to the distance from the classroom, multiplied by the amount of money you earn. Needless to say, public school teachers – especially veterans – score very low on this test.
Everyone seems to get a voice on how students should be taught but theteachers themselves, who have been framed as lazy, unmotivated, self-interested slobs in desperate need of discipline from the Free Market. And in the rare moments real public schools teachers are given the microphone