The False Prophets of School Reform

It is astonishing to see people who have never taught, or have taught a few years and left, become the major forces shaping education in the United States.. They are guided by a policy ethos,which, if you were describing it in biblical terms, would be regarded as False Idolatry. While holding the human skills great teaching involves in contempt, they worship Data, Quality Control and Top Down Management, turning schools into caricatures of the early 20th century factories Charlie Chaplin portrayed in "Modern Times." Their soul crushing regimen can be found in every state in the union, driving the best teachers out of the profession, squeezing the creativity and joy out of children, pushing families with resources to abandon public education. You don't have to be a prophet to fight this; but it is precisely the kind of forced march to disaster, and worship of false gods, that our greatest prophets warned against.