One takeaway from the film "The Street Stops Here" ( which is a documentary of an extreme outlier teacher/coach, so caveat caveat ) is that it takes a strong se

One takeaway from the film "The Street Stops Here" ( which is a documentary of an extreme outlier teacher/coach, so caveat caveat ) is that it takes a strong sense of dedication to make a difference in education. The person in question - coach Bob Hurley, in a decaying New Jersey town - is a retired parole officer, and he's there to keep kids out of prison. So this is is his white whale. I don't think you can buy that, but you might be able to buy furniture - support systems, assistance, the like - to keep it from being killed off. Instead, we get six-sigma metrification which may well make it worse. At least it Heisenbugs the curriculum and distracts from actual teaching. Something must be done, this is something, this must be done... Then again, the canonical teacher is Socrates, and he was forced to drink hemlock... I think people get embarrassed by being discarded by the sorting-machine and resent the system, even when it's their kids in it. We don't really value education for its own sake - it must be shown to be in service of other societal goals - mainly economic goals. That can get out of control quickly.