Facile Education Policy Talk

Sherman Dorn is the latest — and, as he usually is, the most thoughtful — commentator on what he calls the “The adults v. children meme of facile ed policy talk, part 375.” The point of inspiration for Dorn’s post was this cliché filled essay by Ruben Naverette, which proclaimed that

Public schools have, for generations, crafted an environment that caters to the needs and wants of the adults who work in the schools rather than those of the children who attend them.

This “I speak for the children, while you only care about the adults” line of rhetoric has become the educational policy equivalent of the abuse of patriotism in political discourse.

Just consider what is being said here. Teachers who have dedicated their lives to educating young people, with the loss of all that might come from more lucrative and less demanding professional careers, care only about themselves. Yet those who have found much less taxing and more financially rewarding occupations — including education policy analysts — really care about children.

Care is not something demonstrated by self-serving declarations.

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