Where My Right to Criticize Comes From- A Message to Duncan, Rhee and King

If you're going to be a social critic or an activist, you need to have a moral center, a place where the integrity of your position of affirmed. Mine is teaching. This is what I do. This is what I love, This is how I have validated myself for nearly 50 years. So when I scrutinize, and find lacking, the actions of an Arne Duncan, or a Michelle Rhee, or a John King, I don't do so by an abstract standard, I  make my reference point the interactions I have had with thousands of students, both during and after I taught them, interactions still going on as I write these words. Those who seek to reshape this experience without having lived it are not only dangerously misguided, they are dangerous. I say this with total confidence. To quote JZ

"Can't stand in my pants, can't walk in my shoes, bet everything you worth, you'll lose your tie and your short."

Teachers. stand up. Speak out! Don't let false prophets lead us over a cliff!