By the numbers

The war of personalities in education is nothing new. This war is especially heated at the moment. Again, nothing new. But what is different about the current “Eduwars” is the facility of varied and constant media to create a barrage of sound bites from all sides. This is a war as much of reductive misrepresentations of people’s opinions than it is a clash over philosophy or policy. This often detracts, as Merrow suggests in his recent post, from the real problems at hand.

Outside the fray, the most foundational issue of all comes to the fore: teachers, in the way school and the education workforce are currently arranged, cannot perform as well as our children deserve them to. Merrow highlights how the superhuman effort required in reform models (regardless of the stance du jour on testing) such as TFA and KIPP is not as sustainable in real life as it is in messaging. Merrow writes, “Let’s look at the numbers. We have about 100,000 public schools. Perhaps 5,000 or maybe even 10,000 are defying the odds. At that rate, how long will it take? Where will the thousands and thousands of inspired leaders and teachers come from?” Merrow echoes NCTAF’s message that calls for an understanding of the fact that individual heroism won’t get us out of this. The answer to Merrow’s question about where the teachers will come from needs to be answered by the federal, state, and local governments and by business and industry. Retirees can also help provide an answer. The point is, no one sector—public or private—can go it alone. We all need to pitch in.