There is a trend in which policies and actions are more and more being optimized to maximize the apparent empathy of the policy or action. There seems to be mor

There is a trend in which policies and actions are more and more being optimized to maximize the apparent empathy of the policy or action. There seems to be more concern with having good intentions than with achieving good outcomes. This is great for the policy-maker. After all, the goal of appearing empathetic is easily achieved and requires little effort. Just shoot off your blog post (season well with progressive buzz-words), stop grading papers and accept incoming congratulations at your convenience. Achieving good outcomes, on the other hand, requires actually doing something. It requires an understanding of a real, measurable problem. It requires careful planning, execution, observation of outcomes, and iterative improvement. It requires risk--risk of looking silly, risk of failure, risk of wasted time. Nobody writes articles about teachers whose methods erase the performance gap between the privileged and underprivileged. Why do the hard, thankless work of actually solve the problems? Why not be an empathy zombie?